


The Haunting of Willowmourne Manor

by accioredvines



Category: Original Work
Genre: Awkward Romance, M/M, Pre - Ghost Story, romantic ghost story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 16:03:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 38,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9827870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/accioredvines/pseuds/accioredvines
Summary: When his family moves to an old plantation in the countryside, Liam is devastated. Soon, a mysterious, young man, Jax helps him to see not everything is what it seems.





	1. Chapter One

Chapter One

He wasn’t quite sure what he’d done in his past life to deserve this. He must have kicked a lot of puppies. It was hour eight of the second day of their trek from Maine to Georgia and he was cramped. He’d somehow drawn the short straw and was stuck in between a car seat, where his little brother Henry sat sleeping soundly, and his step-sister Harper, who was currently using his side as a pillow.

He was cramped and he’d had to pee for the past two hours but didn’t want to interrupt his father and stepmother's rather embarrassing sing-along session to Henry’s Disney CD. They didn’t realize Henry had fallen asleep an hour ago. He squirmed a bit trying not to whimper at his full bladder. They had to be getting close…

Harper let out an annoyed grumble and and punched him lightly for moving before headbutting his side a bit, clearly not caring that she was causing him great discomfort. He let out a loud sigh, perking up when he finally caught sight of a sign proclaiming the town entrance: “Oak Point: Population 2,000”. He really must have done something terrible in his life to deserve this. He nudged Harper a bit causing her to flail and smack him in the face.

“‘M’sorry,” She grumbled rubbing her face.

“I don’t think you actually are,” He replied, reaching a hand out to smooth her crazy tangle of red hair. “But we’re almost there.”

Harper seemed to perk up almost instantly, leaning over to whisper, “About damn time. You’re too bony to be a pillow, Liam.”

Liam opened his mouth to object, when Helena, his step-mother, turned in her seat to glare at Harper. “I heard that young lady. Watch your mouth.”

“How could you even hear me over that?” Harper questioned, flailing her arm around, smacking him in the side this time, indicating the loud Disney songs.

“I always know when you curse around Henry, darlin,” Helena replied. “I’ve told you before I don’t like that kind of language around him.”

Harper let out a deep sigh, rolling her eyes. “Liam says we’re almost there. I have to pee like no other.”

Liam’s father let out a little laugh from the driver’s seat, “It’s another 10 minutes before we actually get to the house, Harps. Can you hold it that long?”

“Maybe if you weren’t driving so slow,” Harper griped, leaning back in her seat.  
“I like the speed he’s driving at,” Helena said, shooting her daugher a look, “I like to see how the town has changed.”

“It looks exactly like it did when we came to visit grandma when I was six,” Harper grumbled under her breath, looking out the window at the tree lined road, arms crossed over her chest.

Liam’s father continued to drive straight through the town. Liam was shocked to see that there were no traffic lights, or even stop signs. He knew he was truly in the middle of nowhere, Georgia. The car veered off slightly onto an unpaved road.

“We’ll have to get this little road paved up when we open,” Helena began, sitting up to look out her window, a look of excitement on her face. “People won’t like this unpaved road.”

“Whatever you want, love,” Liam’s father said, smiling at Helena.

“And obviously we’ll have to work on these trees,” Helena continued, motioning to the overgrown trees lining the road. “They’re a bit of an eyesore.”

“Is that the house?” Harper exclaimed, leaning into Liam’s personal space to point between their parents shoulders. Liam looked ahead and several feet away was a humongous plantation style home.

The house was huge and had probably been beautiful once upon a time but time had clearly taken a toll on the house. It was slightly elevated from the ground with twin staircases leading from a graveled driveway up to a large wrap around patio. The house had once been white but now it was a dingy gray with vines growing up the thick columns that supported a second floor balcony. The shrubbery that had once been trimmed to perfection was out of control and wild. The windows were clouded over with several years worth of dust and a few even looked like they had been broken. The once black shutters looked like they were barely hanging on.

“We left Brookhaven for this?” Liam blurted out, taking in the crumbling plantation house, missing the comfortable, clean, maintained colonial house back home.

Harper’s eyes lit up, “I like it. It’s definitely got to be haunted.” She opened her door as soon as the car came to a stop and nearly tumbled out to stretch her legs.

Helena turned back to look at him, “I know it’s not picture perfect at the moment, but it will be soon.”

“Well I understand why you guys got it for such a good price,” Liam said, no longer eager to get out of the car. “It looks like it’s going to crumble the moment we step in.”

“It’s not that bad,” His father said, eyeing the house. “It’ll just take a little work and it’ll be ship-shape.”

Liam rolled his eyes at his father’s optimism. He turned sideways to starting unbuckling his little brother from his car seat.

“I got that, hun,” Helena said as she climbed out of the car, with a Target bag. “There’s toilet paper in here why don’t y’all go see the state of the bathrooms?”

“I’m extremely terrified of that,” Liam replied, climbing out the car, watching Harper jet across the lawn and up the stairs.

Helena gave him a pat on the cheek and a grin and handed him a set of old looking keys and the Target bag.”Go help Harper get in the house.”

“If I must,” Liam replied, trudging up to the front of the house, swinging the plastic bag back and forth. He felt a chill run down his spine as he walked up the staircase towards the front door and he tried not to shiver visibly as he made his way over to Harper, who was trying to peer into the dirty windows. He twirled the keychain around his finger as he walked over to her, feeling a sense of unease. “I got the keys.”

Harper spun on her heals and made grabby hands for the keys, “Hurry up and give them to me. I gotta pee like no other.”

Liam tossed the keys to his step-sister, taking a moment to glance around the wide porch. There were a few white wicker benches that looked like they had seen better days placed evenly in front of the widows.

Harper caught the keys and began testing them, dancing from foot to foot until she found the key that unlocked the over sized black, chipped door. She let out a cry of happiness before pushing the door open. She turned to face Liam. “You coming, bro?”

“I guess I have to,” He replied following Harper into the house. “Does this place even have electricity or do we have to light candles everywhere we go?”

Harper faced him, walking backwards into the house, “You didn't listen at all on the first hour of our journey did you? Too busy texting Jason.” She smirked.

Liam felt his cheeks flush at the mention of his boyfriend. Well now ex-boyfriend but still best friend. “You were texting him too.” Liam mumbled under his breath.

“Yeah, but I'm an excellent multi-tasker,” Harper grinned. “Mama said they put electrical bits in this place in the 1950s. She had someone come in and update it all last month.”

“Why couldn't she go ahead and have someone update the rest of this place?” Liam asked, looking around with a shudder.

“Apparently your father volunteered to do a lot of the work,” Harper replied, walking along the front of the hall trying to find the light switch for the foyer.

“My father is an accountant,” Liam replied dryly.

“He must be trying to prove himself,” Harper shrugged, finally finding the light switch and turning it on.

The foyer was instantly brightened, by an huge crystal chandelier. Liam had to admit that at least the chandelier was pretty with the light twinkling through the crystals making shadows dance around on the walls. “I didn’t realize it was getting so late,” Liam muttered, glancing out the window where the sun was setting.

“Well we were on the road at about six this morning. We stopped a few times so… yeah it makes sense that it’s dusk,” Harper replied, glancing around the foyer. Directly in front of them  
was a large staircase that led up to the second floor. Harper turned towards the left heading to the first open room.

Without thinking Liam reached out and grabbed her hand, “Please don’t leave me here alone.”

Harper rolled her eyes, “Well then come on silly,” She said squeezing his hand lightly. “I’ll protect you from the dust bunnies.” She puffed her chest out and put a smug look on her face, clearly trying to look the part of the superhero whose logo was splashed across her shirt.

This wasn’t the first time that Liam felt incredibly lucky that his father had married Harper’s mother. They’d pretty much been best friends from the moment that they met in the sixth grade during homeroom. Harper’s mother had been their homeroom teacher and in the sixth grade Liam had been … well he’d been an easy target. A much larger boy had stalked over to him before the bell rang and shoved him, calling him names he didn’t even remember now. Twelve year old Harper had stormed over, her red hair in twin braids over her shoulders and glasses perched on her nose and stomped on the boy's foot. He should have been embarrassed that this tiny girl was sticking up for him but really he was just in awe as she started yelling at the boy and had to be dragged off by her mother. Best friends ever since. And then at parent-teacher night a few weeks later his father had shown up … and the rest was history. Helena and Harper became a part of the family.

Liam gently squeezed her hand back before he allowed himself to be pulled along to the first room on the left. Harper paused inside the room, eyes wide with excitement. The room was large and filled with floor to ceiling bookshelves built into the wall. There were even some old books still sitting on the shelves. “Okay this place is kind of magical,” She said with a happy sigh. “Mama is going to love this.”

“I’d be more excited if I didn’t have to pee,” Liam said, wincing at how whiny he sounded.

“Yeah, yeah. I gotta go too.” She continued to pull him through the room, turning towards the right to find another open doorway. “Let’s continue!” She stepped through the door and into a small hallway. There was another open door at the end of it, which she tugged him through. It was another large empty room, most likely a dining room. “There should be a bathroom around here somewhere.” This room led out to another porch on the back of the house.

“Hopefully,” Liam grumbled. The longer he had to pee the more irritable he was getting. He let go of Harper’s hand to walk out of the door to the on the left of the room and came across another hallway. There were a few closed doors on the left of the hallway and he opened the first one: a closet. He walked a few more feet and let out a cry of happiness: the bathroom. He hurried inside before Harper could catch on that he found it.

He went about doing his business someone started pounding on the door. “Sheesh Harper, give me a minute!” He flushed, thankful that someone had thought to put indoor plumbing in the house and took a step towards the sink and looked at his reflection in the large ornate mirror hanging above the pedestal sink. God he looked tired. He leaned down to splash his face with water when the banging on the door resumed. “I’m almost done!” He couldn’t believe how impatient she was being. The banging continued until he stepped over to unlock and open the door.

He stepped out into the hallway and didn’t see Harper waiting outside. He rolled his eyes, she’d probably jetted down the hallway before he opened the door. He was used to her doing things like this. He turned to head down the part of the hallway he hadn’t yet ventured, assuming she’d probably continued to explore to see if there was another bathroom on this level.

The end of the hallway opened up into an enormous kitchen. He was right. Harper was standing in the kitchen with his father, Helena, and Henry. Henry was blinking blearily in Helena’s arms, head drooped onto her shoulder.

“I’m done you, spaz,” Liam said with a roll of his eyes, “You didn’t need to try to break down the door.”

Harper cocked her head at him and arched her eyebrow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You were just banging on the bathroom door,” Liam replied.

“No. I did just the once but I’ve been in here with Mama and Nathan,” Harper said.


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two  
The wind and rain were whipping around at an alarming rate, making it almost impossible to see anything ahead. He was supposed to go on this scouting mission and return back as soon as possible but it didn’t look like returning was going to be possible tonight. He knew that there was a house nearby. It had been his own before the war had erupted and forced his mother and sisters to abandon the house.

He pushed his horse towards what he hoped was the right direction. He could just barely make it out in the distance, stark white against the raging storm around him. He pushed his horse faster, looking forward to getting out of the rain as soon as he possibly could. He rounded the back where he knew the stables the stables were located. Finally he was able to dismount in the comfort of the stables.

He fetched a candle from the small work station at the front of the stables and set about getting it lit, so that he might be able to see. Once he had accomplished that task went about removing the saddle from Sugarheart, his horse. He led her towards one of the stalls towards the back and dropped the saddle in shock.

Laying on the ground was a man… a man in blue. The man wasn’t moving. In fact it was impossible to tell if the man was even breathing. As he took a step closer to the man he could tell that there were dark red splotches on his uniform. One on the man’s left shoulder and another on his right leg. The man suddenly stirred and cried out in fear and pain noticing him standing there.

“Sir, my name is Charles Alexander Caldwell. I know we’re on opposin’ sides but I’m just too damn cold and wet to do anythin’ about it”

The man in blue’s eyes widened as he attempted to sit up, “I’m sorry, sir. I’ve been here since before the storm started.”

Charles took a step towards the man, his hands raised to show him that he was unarmed. “You been shot?”

The man nodded, “It appears I have been.”

“What’s your name?” Charles asked as he came closer to the man. He appeared to be young, maybe a few years younger than himself. He had bright green eyes, that were still wide in fear. His skin was pale, almost grey tinged.

“Benjamin,” he replied quickly. “Benjamin Allen.”

“I’d say it’s nice to meet ya, but in your case it probably isn’t. How ‘bout I get ya into the house and take a look at those wounds of yours.”  
“Are you sure about that?” Benjamin replied. “I’m content to just lay here and bleed to death. I’d resigned myself to that fate before you showed up.”

“Well at least you haven’t lost your sense of humor,” Charles said a bit gruffly, leaning down to help the man up.

Benjamin let out a scream of pain as he was jostled into a standing position.

*********

Liam jolted awake to pounding on his door. He rubbed at his face, the dream he’d been having… it had felt so real. He was honestly surprised to wake up to his normal cocoon of blankets and not the thunderous downpour of a storm.

There was another round of pounding on his door, “Liam! Mama said to get up. We’ve apparently got a lot of work to do.” Harper’s voice called from the other side of the door followed by the “ Up up Yam!” of his little brother. Henry adored Harper and was often seen following her around like a little puppy.

“I’m coming!” Liam called, rolling out of his bed. They’d been at the new house for a little over a week and he hadn’t even started unpacking. Before they’d made the journey Helena had hired someone to redo the part of the house that they’d be living in but she preferred to take on the task of remodeling the rest of the house on her own. Something about giving it a personal touch. He really couldn’t remember he’d zoned out at that point.

He reached into one of the boxes that were arranged haphazardly around his room for a t-shirt and some shorts. He pulled out the first one his hand came in contact with and his stomach seized a bit. It was the one that Jason had given him for his birthday before they’d decided that they would be better off as friends since he was moving so far away. It was a stupid shirt that had a t-rex with an extendable claw that said “I’m unstoppable”. Jason was always teasing him about his height. He was only a few inches taller than Harper who was a mere five foot two. He pushed his face into it and heaved a sigh before pulling on with a pair of gym shorts and his usual tennis shoes.

He stumbled out into the hallway and down the hall towards the kitchen. Helena was already in there, bright eyed and grinning in her ‘cleaning’ clothes, her short curly red hair was pulled into stubby little pigtails. “Mornin’ sunshine.”

Liam just grumbled, walking over to the pantry to grab a box of cereal. He rooted around until he found the box of Cocoa Pebbles he loved so much. He then fumbled around until he found a cereal bowl and then the milk.

“How’d ya sleep last night?” Helena asked,as she rooted around the kitchen for some cleaning supplies. She’d been working on cleaning up the vast upstairs with his father for the past week.

“I slept fine,” Liam mumbled shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. “What do you want me and Harper to work on today?”

“Y’all are gonna start workin’ on the outside. I know how much you like gardenin’. I want y’all to start shapin’ up the trees at the front of the property. I’m gonna hire someone proper to do it once we open up shop.”

“But for now you have me and Harper for free labor,” Liam finished. “How long do you think it’ll be until we open up?”

“Oh darlin’ it won’t be for another month or so. Your father, bless his heart, is causin’ a little more harm than good. I may have to get my papa to come out here and fix up some of his mess.”

Liam let out a laugh. He knew his father probably wouldn’t be great at the repair man thing. He was much better with numbers. “You sure you don’t want to just hire someone?”

Helena laughed a bit, “Not many people in town want to come out here.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Liam drawled, thinking about how the house currently looked, creepy and run down.

“Oh hush you,” Helena said with a laugh. “This place was gorgeous when I was a little girl. The previous owners moved on to Florida about twenty years ago. Just recently I was able to talk them into sellin’.”

Liam shrugged. The place wasn’t really as horrible as he thought it was when they first pulled up. He was still just a little bitter about having to move. He went and set his bowl in the sink and was about to walk away when Helena swatted him, “You wash up that dish now. Honestly you and your father are always leavin’ your dirty dishes around.”

Liam smiled sheepishly before washing and drying his dish, hoping that they’d install a dishwasher or something before they opened up as a bed and breakfast.

“Go on out and help Harper. I don’t trust that girl on a ladder much less with garden shears.”

Liam winced, thinking of the time when they were in eighth grade when Harper had fallen off a stepstool and broken her arm. It hadn’t been pretty for anyone involved. He made his way out of the kitchen and through the rest of the house towards the foyer. He passed his father getting heading up the stairs with Henry. He offered him a good morning and good luck to which his father replied with a withering glare.  
Once outside Liam cursed when he realized he still had about a half a mile to walk before he reached the front of the estate. Lord only knew what kind of trouble Harper could get herself into by the time he made it out there. He started to jog, half tempted to call out to tel Harper not to do anything stupid but he knew that would just spur her on to do it.

He quickly came to the front and was pretty surprised to find his sister was not alone. She was standing next to the very first overgrown tree, gardening shears in hand talking to a boy around their age. He was tall (although most people were compared to him and Harper) with wavy, dark brown hair and the greenest eyes he’d ever seen, he was standing there leaning on the handlebars of the bike between his legs. Liam bit off a curse as he tripped slightly over a root and flushed when the green-eyed boy looked up and made eye contact with him. The boy grinned crookedly at him.

Harper noticed the boy's attention was no longer on her and turned to face Liam. “Ah. There he is. This is my step-brother Liam. Liam this is Jackson Larrimore. He’s from town. His dad went to school with my mama.”

The boy, Jackson, continued to grin at them, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. “I like to be called Jax,” he said with a wink, “And I just had to stop by and meet the family that bought out Willowmourne Mansion.”

Liam blinked owlishly at the handsome newcomer as Harper rolled her eyes, “Liam isn’t usually so silent. I think he may still be half asleep.”

Jax continued to grin, eyeing Liam. “He looks pretty awake to me. Cute shirt.” He nodded towards Liam’s chest.

Liam felt his cheeks go warm as he muttered out an embarrassed thanks. If he’d known they were going to have visitors this morning he would have opted for something other than his dinosaur shirt. Harper widened her eyes and nodded her head at him as if trying to communicate with him telepathically.

“Erm, it’s nice to meet you?” Liam finally managed to reply, hoping that was what Harper wanted him to say. He coughed a bit trying to regain himself. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually so socially awkward.”

Harper let out a muffled snort, rolling her eyes. “I’m not!” Liam said indignantly. “I just didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Well that’s understandable,” Jax began, “considering.”

“Considering what?” Harper asked, dropping the sheers they would be using to trim up the trees on the ground.  
“Well considering everyone in town is convinced that this old house is haunted,” Jax grinned.

Harper’s eyes lit up, “Seriously? That is way too cool.”

“You’re idea of what is cool is way different than mine,” Liam muttered, moving to pick up the shears Harper dropped on the ground. He glanced around and let out a tired groan when he realized Harper neglected to get the ladder.

“Y’all gonna start workin’ on the trees?” Jax asked, eyeing the two of them. “Y’all are a little on the short side. Want some help? I don’t have a lot goin’ on today. I’d be happy to help out the new folks.”

Harper opened her mouth to rip into the boy about calling them short but Liam wrapped a hand around her mouth before she could get fired up. “That would be nice. Harper isn’t allowed on the ladder and… well I get dizzy.”

Harper licked Liam’s hand and he released her with a disgusted whine, “I can so get on the ladder.”

“8th grade,” is all that Liam said in response.

“Sounds like there’s a story behind that,” Jax said climbing off his bike and popping the bike stand. “I’d like to hear it while I help y’all out. Is there a ladder somewhere?”

“Yeah,” Liam started to reply but Harper interrupted him with “ It’s back at the house. It might take two people. Liam will go with you.”  
Liam shot Harper an annoyed look. He knew what she was up to. Trying to play matchmaker was kind of her thing. There was nothing about Jax that even made Liam even think that he would be attracted to guys. His step-sister was an annoyance.

She just gave him a wide grin and went to pick up the shears, waving them somewhat wildly around. “Don’t even think about it,” Liam warned. “You’ll accidently cut off your arm or something.”

Jax let out a laugh at the indignant look on Harper’s face. “C’mon. Let’s go get that ladder before your sister decides to cut of your arm with those shears.”

“She wouldn’t. Her mom would be very disappointed in her. She’d use her teacher voice,” Liam replied, turning around to head back down the driveway. “I could probably carry the ladder on my own.”

“No you can’t,” Harper exclaimed, “You’re horribly weak.”

Liam flushed as Jax laughed, “I don’t mind at all.”

"If you say so," Liam said with a shrug, shooting Harper an annoyed look before he began the trek down the driveway. "Sorry. I'm not usually so snarky. Helena hasn't been able to find the coffee maker yet. I'm kind of a bear without caffeine."

"S'all right," Jax said with an easy grin as he followed Liam down the driveway. "I don't mind the snark. I also understand the caffeine addiction. There's a nice little place in town you should stop by sometime. I happen to be on quite good terms with the owner. She is my mother. I might be able to talk her into givin’ you a few cups on the house."

Liam felt his cheeks heat up when Jax made eye contact with him. "I'll have to check it out then. I think Helena deliberately left the coffee machine in one of the boxes coming on the moving truck that is currently lost somewhere."

Jax left, "Is she trying to get you to kick the habit?"

"I think so," Liam replied. "She says I'm too young for a coffee addiction. She lets Harper have all the tea she wants though. I think she may be biased."

Jax let out a laugh, "Us southerners have a thing for teas. Especially if it's sweet."

Liam let out an exaggerated gagging sound, "No sweet tea for me please. It's like drinking syrup."

"You just haven't had the right sweet tea yet. You'll have to let me make you some sometime," Jax replied with a wink. "I have heard I make the best sweet tea in town."

Liam quietly cursed his inability to control his blushing. This boy just managed to make him more flustered than Jason ever had in just five minutes. They made their way closer to the house and Jax let out a low whistle.

"Your step-mama must be working her tail feather off. This place is already startin' to look good."

"Yeah. When Helena sets her mind to something she's going to get accomplished no matter what. Even if my dad manages to break more things than he can fix. The ladder is around back," Liam said motioning for Jax to follow him around back. "My dad was using it yesterday to repaint the shutters on the back. He did a passable job. Helena's words, not mine."

"My daddy said your step-mama was quite the stubborn one," Jax laughed.

"She really is," Liam laughed. "I think that's why my dad loves her so much. She know what she wants.’

Once they reached the back of the house Liam motioned over to the ladder and his eyes widened as Jax proceeded to lug it up on his shoulder with ease, "I think I got this."

Liam just nodded, eyes wide, "Yeah. I think you do. Um... let's head back before Harper impales herself on the shears. And you can tell me about the house and why the town thinks it's haunted. Helena is keeping the house's history to herself."

“I rather think I’d hear more about Harper and the 8th grade,” Jax said with a grin. “It’s gotta be an interesting story.”


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Dinner was frozen pizza again. It was the third time this week and Liam was starting to get sick of it. He was going to ask Helena for the keys to the car and go grocery shopping while everyone else continued working on the house. He was dying for some vegetables.

After managing to eat what seemed like his thousandth piece of pizza that week Liam helped Harper clean up the table. "Wanna get the keys from Helena and go to the store? I'm dying for something other than pizza for dinner."

Harper grinned, "I thought you'd never ask. I'll tell mom you're driving...but I want to."

"Absolutely not," Liam replied. "I'll ask Helena for the keys. You're not driving that car anywhere. You don't have your license yet."  
Harper let out a groan, "Parallel parking is so hard. I didn't see the curb okay?"

"That doesn't make me feel any better about riding in the car with you." Liam headed out of the kitchen to find Helena working in the library. "Helena? I know you're just as sick of having pizza for dinner as we are. How about Harper and I run to the store and get some real food."

"That's awfully nice of you darlin," Helena said with a smile. "The keys to the car are hangin' up on a hook inside the mudroom. Would you mind takin' your brother with you? I need your daddy's help pulling out the top shelves. He's got a bit more muscle than me."

"Not by much," Liam muttered under his breath. His father was definitely not the definition of handy but his enthusiasm to make Helena happy made up for it. "I'll grab Henry and the keys. We shouldn't be too long."

"Thanks again, darlin'. Make sure you get some green vegetables. And chicken! And stuff to make tacos... if I have another piece of pizza..." she trailed off as Liam walked away.

He headed to the mudroom located in what was actually a little closet in the hallway right near the front door and grabbed the keys to the car, hollering for Harper to grab their brother and meet him at the car.

He headed out the front door and froze when he thought he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye. It was a flash of gray, there one moment and gone the next. Harper came running out of the house with Henry on her hip and nearly barreled into him. "Why the heck are you stopped in the middle of the way?"

Liam shook his head, "I thought I saw something but it was probably just an animal."

"Aminal?" Henry inquired, squirming in Harper's grasp looking all around for whatever it was Liam had thought he'd seen.

"It's already gone bud," Liam said ruffling his little brother's strawberry blonde curls. "I didn't mean to get you all excited."

Henry pouted as Harper carried him over to the car and proceeded to wrestle him into his car seat. "Please be good, Hen."

"I be good," Henry said with a toothy grin.

Liam looked over in the direction he thought he'd seen the animal, near one of the larger trees to the left of the house. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. It must have just been his imagination. He climbed in the car and started it, swatting at Harper's hand as she reached for the radio. "Nope. None of your nonsense today."

"You happen to like my nonsense," Harper replied as Henry began to chant loudly for his favorite Disney CD.

"You know we have to listen to Henry's CD or he'll lose his mind," Liam stated, starting Henry's CD.

"And you know that I don't hate it," Harper replied turning the CD up before loudly beginning to sing along to it, making Henry giggle and clap in the backseat excitedly.

Liam sighed to himself. He really should have just gone on this trip to the grocery store himself. Now he'd have to keep an eye on Henry and Harper. He loved his step-sister but sometimes she could be a little bit of a goofball. She was more a danger to herself than he thought one small person could be.

He spent the entire drive to the store fighting the urge to sing along. Harper would never let him hear the end of it if he joined in with her. It took about thirty minutes to get to the small grocery store in town. On the way there he passed a small coffee shop sporting the name "Roasted". It must be the place Jax had told him about. He was going to make a quick pit stop there on the way home. He desperately needed some coffee in his life. He didn't even care if it would keep him up all night.

The trip through the store was fairly uneventful. They were stopped a few times by some of the people shopping around introducing themselves. The joys of now living in a small town. Everyone was curious about the newcomers. Harper was a great distraction while Liam hunted for things in the small store. She was an excellent people person and could talk off anyone's ear. In fact once he'd finished making their purchases he had to drag her away from a girl their age who was cooing over Henry and clearly enjoying a story Harper was regaling about one of Henry's adventures.

"I think I'm gonna like it here," Harper announced as she settled Henry in his seat before helping Liam load in the groceries. "We're the hot topic of the town."

"Oh?" Liam asked as he carefully loaded in the milk, eggs, and bread.

"Oh yeah. Everyone apparently thinks we're crazy for moving into that house. It's apparently haunted. I'm all about that. What say you we go ghost hunting?"

"You know Helena doesn't want us venturing off in the unfinished parts of the house," Liam replied climbing into the car. "I'm gonna stop by that coffee shop on the way home. You want me to grab you anything?"

"Is it the one that Jackson guy was telling us about yesterday? The one that his mom owns?”

"Yeah but that's not why I want to go there." Liam said quickly, blushing when Harper gave him an arched eyebrow. "Okay maybe that's part of the reason."

"I figured," Helena said with a grin. "He's cute. Totally your type."

"And he's probably not even into guys so it really doesn't matter," Liam grumbled starting the car and heading towards the coffee shop just down the block. "I just kind of want to look at his face a lot."

Harper let out a laugh. "Well you're in luck." She said pointing towards the window where indicating that Jax was behind the counter. "Looks like he'll be making your coffee for you. Go in there."

Liam stuck his tongue out at his sister, "I'll leave the car running. Please don't do anything embarrassing out here."

Harper looked at him with wide eyed innocence, "Now would I do that?"

"Yes. Yes you would. I'll get Hen a cookie while I'm in there. He was very well behaved, for once."

"Oooh! Get me one too. I was well behaved!"

Liam rolled his eyes before he turned and made his way into the coffee shop. A soft bell dinged as he opened the door and his nose was immediately hit with the smell of roasted coffee beans and freshly brewed coffee.

"Well if it isn't the new guy," Jax greeted him with a big grin. "The trees still lookin' alright?"

Liam nodded a little awkwardly. "Yeah. Helena says that they look great. And she said to thank you from what and i quote her on this "WOuld have been a quick trip to the hospital. Don't know what I was thinkin' askin' you and Harper to do the trees. Must be outta my mind." end quote."

Jax let out a laugh, "Well it was my pleasure to help y'all out. Most fun I've had so far this summer."

"Okay. That can't be true."

"It is. Not much to do round here when school isn't in session. The only movie theater is a good hour away."

Liam let out a groan, "Helena must be trying to torture me. I have to drive an hour away to see the next Avengers movie? Not cool."

"You a Marvel fan?" Jax said with a smile.

"I'm pretty much a big nerd. Part of the reason Harper and I get along so well. We're both obsessed with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And Chris Evans." Liam bit his lip after he blurted out that last bit of information.

"Well who isn't?" Jax said with a charming grin. "He's the perfect Captain America."

"Jackson Larrimore!" A loud voice called from the back of the shop, "You gonna help that boy out or are you just gonna flirt?"

"Sheesh, Ma," Jax groaned, "Can't I make some small talk?:" He rolled his eyes, "What can I get you then?"

"Just a black coffee and three cookies. Harps and Hen are waiting for me in the car," Liam replied with a bit of a blush. "And groceries. There are groceries in the car."

"Well I won't keep you then," Jax said getting together a cup of coffee and gathering three chocolate chunk cookies in a small bag. He took a moment to write something on the cup before handing everything over to Liam. "It's on the house."

 

"Oh... wow. Thanks?" Liam stammered. "I'll see you around?"

"I hope so," Jax said with another charming grin. "I hope y'all have a good night."

"Um.. yeah. You too," He turned and walked out of the shop, finally looking down at the cup to see what Jax had written. It was his phone number.

He was still blushing when he got in the car and handed the small paper bag of cookies over to his sister before showing her the number on his cup.

She let out a whoop of laughter before clapping him on the back. "Get it bro!"


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Charles almost dropped the other young man at the sound of pain that escaped from him, “I’m real sorry ‘bout this. I gotta get you in the house though. It’s too chilly and wet out here for those wounds.”  
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather leave me here?" The other man inquired, voice laced with pain. "It's a bit strange that you'd even want to help me. We're on opposite sides."

"Right now you're just a person who needs my help," Charles replied. "How did you manage to get yourself in here anyway?"

"I'm quite stubborn," Benjamin replied. "It wasn't raining yet when I stumbled in here. I managed to lose my horse on the way here as well."

"I must say you had to have been determined," He maneuvered Benjamin so that he, himself was carrying most of Benjamin's weight. "I should be able to get you into the house quick as you like."

"If you say so," Benjamin winced as Charles began to help him out of the barn and into the rough rain. The journey was slow and painful but Benjamin was relieved to be up on the porch, that much closer to a warm bed.

Charles helped Benjamin get settled on a bench beside the door as he fumbled around to get the house key from around his neck. "Are you alright there?"

Benjamin nodded, wincing as he jostled his head to much. He felt quite dizzy from the blood loss. "I think I might be alright for the time being. I'm surprised to be alive at all still."

"When were you shot?" Charles inquired, finally managing to unlock the door.

"Just a day ago. I tried the house first when I arrived and was surprised to find it locked up tight."

"You're lucky then. If you'd been an early my mama and sisters would have been here and they probably would have shot you dead."

"That sounds charming," Benjamin replied, wincing when Charles began to maneuver him into a standing position once again. "I'm still not sure why you didn't finish me off. It would probably be a lot easier than carting me around."

Charles wasn't really sure why he had decided to help this young soldier from the other side, perhaps it's because he felt sorry for him, or maybe he was just tired of all the bloodshed. "I'll tell you a secret then."

"Oh? That sounds interesting." Benjamin replied, being helped through the house. "I like secrets."

"I liked your eyes." Charles replied, catching Benjamin's bright green eyes with his own. Lightning flashed, illuminating the dark room to reveal a kitchen. "And maybe I'm just tired of all the bloodshed."

Benjamin nodded as Charles helped him over to a low table that was used as the servants dinner table and into a chair. "Well I'm glad my eyes have helped save me from another gunshot wound."

"You wouldn't have had to worry about that," Charles replied, looking around the kitchen through flashes of lightning. He finally came upon a candle and set about getting it lit. "I'm really quite a terrible shot."

“That’s a relief,” sighed Benjamin, holding up his hands as Charles moved closer to help him back up. “Can I just rest for a moment? It’s been very trying all this jostling”

“I’d like to let you, but I’d like to get a look at your wounds. You see while I’m a terrible shot, I happen to be quite adept at stitchin’ up wounds. You see I was a medic.”

There was a loud crack of thunder and Benjamin jumped with a wince, letting out a quiet yelp of pain.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------

Liam sat up with a startled yell as thunder cracked outside. He blindly reached next to him to turn the light on by his bed but quickly discovered that the power was out. He bit out a curse and fumbled for his phone to use as a flashlight. He finally made contact with it and fiddled around to get the flashlight on. The light illuminated a small portion of the room and Liam let out his second startled yell for the night.

Standing of in the corner of his room was a dark shape, the vague shape of a man, just hovering there, looking at him. The longer Liam stared at it in horror the more solid this shape seemed to be and the more features it appeared to take on. The man was roughly his size and faded in color. He seemed to be dressed in an old military uniform, stained with blood on the chest and leg. Liam was too startled to even blink as the shape of the man seemed to walk closer to the bed. He appeared to be trying to speak but there was no sound escaping his lips.

The figure was close enough to touch the bed when Liam's bedroom door slammed open and another small beam of light from a phone flashlight appeared in the doorway. The figure promptly disappeared as Harper stumbled in, her red hair in a tangled braid over her shoulder. "What the hell Liam?"

"I... uh..." Liam mumbled, still too frozen to speak.

"I just heard you screaming like a girl," Harper grumbled, stumbling her way over to his bed. "I thought you'd gotten over your stupid fear of storms."

"It wasn't the storm," Liam insisted, finally getting his bearings together. "I... I think I ... Never mind. It was nothing."

Harper shoved at him, forcing him to scoot over so she could climb up in the bed beside him. "Well I'm awake now. You might as well tell me." She let out a loud yawn, commandeering Liam's favorite pillow as she settled under the covers, pushing her ice cold feet against his legs. "Tell me about it."

"You look like you're about to fall back asleep," Liam muttered, settling himself back against the pillows. He was sure this seemed weird to other people. His step-sister coming into his room and getting into his bed, but it never really bothered him before. It's not like he was interested in her. He liked boys and she liked... well she wasn't really interested in anything. 

"Nope. I'm totally awake," she let out another sleepy yawn. "Tell me what's got you in here screaming like a girl."

"It wasn't a scream," Liam grumbled. "It was a manly shout."

"Yeah, whatever. Stop avoiding the subject. You woke me up. I'm in here. You're gonna tell me."

"Fine. I was dreaming," Liam started. "It was really weird. I was dreaming about the house... At least I think it was the house. It was dark and stormy in the dream so I couldn't really make out what it really looked like. But in my dream there were two men. I want to say it was Civil War era but again.. it was dark. They both had on military uniforms and one was shot and was bleeding... the other was offering to help. I don't know... There was a crack of thunder in my dream that coincided with the one that just happened and I woke up.: It seemed real. I thought... I felt like I was the man that was offering to help the shot soldier."

"Mmmh,:" Harper murmured, "And that made you scream? A silly little dream?"

"I wasn't finished yet," Liam griped, shoving his step-sister gently. "When I woke up I felt like I was in the wrong place? I was a little disoriented and I reached to turn on my light... power's out obviously. Then I grabbed my phone and turned on my flashlight and then.... Never mind."  
Harper narrowed her eyes at him in the faint glow of their phone light. "That's not it. What freaked you out so much? You looked like you'd seen a ghost or something." She said that last bit with a laugh but immediately sobered up when she saw the startled look on her step-brother's pale face. "Wait... Did you?:"

Liam shook his head, "I don't know what I saw. I... it was have just been the remains of my dream but I could have sworn there was a man standing in here. The man I'd just been dreaming about. He was just standing there looking at me, bullet wounds on his chest and thigh... he seemed like he was trying to speak to me... but I probably just imagined it."

Harper let out a huge sigh, "How come all the cool stuff happens to you? I want to see a ghost." She had a small pout on her face as she shifted under the covers to face him.

"I was probably just still dreaming," Liam muttered. "I probably just made the whole thing up." He reached over and ruffled Harper's hair, "But... just in case will you stay in here the rest of the night?"

"Pfft. If you thought I was leaving after I just got all settled you you're crazy. Of course I'll stay in here. I'll protect you from the creepy ghost." She let out a loud yawn and shuffled around to face the other way. "Don't hog the covers or you'll be on your ass on the floor faster than you can say ghost."

"So much for protecting me, eh?"

"I'll protect you in the morning," She mumbled, already half way on the way to sleep. It took only a few moments for her breathing to even out and for her to very quietly start snoring.

Liam laid there for a few more hours, staring at the space where the figure had appeared, listening to the sounds of the storm around him. He must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing he knew he was waking up to light gray light streaming through his windows. The storm had ended and it was morning. Or maybe late afternoon.

The bed next to him was empty and cold, so Harper had already gotten up and left at some point. He slowly got out of bed, yawning tiredly as he stumbled over to his closet to pull on an old t-shirt and basketball shorts.

He made his way into the kitchen, although he wasn’t actually feeling particularly hungry after the night he’d had last night. Helena was in there rinsing out paintbrushes while Henry toddled around, chasing his favorite ball.

“Hey darlin’,” Helena greeted him with a smile, "How did you sleep last nigh?"

"Um..." Liam began, too tired to really think coherently.

"That bad? Was it the storm? Hen was up squawkin' when the storm started. I hope he didn't wake you up."

"Er... yeah. The storm startled me last night. I didn't hear Henry though," Liam shuffled around the kitchen, finding a loaf of bread. "The power still out?"

"Nah, your daddy got it up again first thing this mornin'. He can be handy sometimes," Helena said with a lough, setting the paint brushes of on a paper towel to dry. "Lord knows those moments are few and far between. My daddy is comin' over today to help us finish up the library."

"Cool,": Liam replied, wandering over to the toaster to put in two pieces of toast. He reached into the cupboard above the toaster to grab the peanut butter. "Where's Harper?"

"She's outside with Jameson Larrimore's son. Jackson I think it was. He's a nice young man. He was askin' about you." Helena said with a grin.

Liam tried not to blush, "He's nice. What are they doing outside?:"

"They're cleanin' up the garden and the plants around the property. The storm wreaked a bit of havoc on all our lovely plants last night."

Liam nodded, slathering peanut butter on his toast and shoving it in his mouth. "I guess I'll go out and help then."

"That would be awfully lovely of you darlin'. Make sure you invite that nice Larrimore boy to stay for lunch. I'm gonna make some homemade macaroni and cheese."

"Mac n chee!" Henry crowed, bouncing his little ball.

"I know it, darlin! Your favorite!"

Liam wandered out of the kitchen, peanut butter toast in hand and headed out the front door in search of Harper and Jax. It didn't take long for him to find them towards the front of the property, picking up branches and other natural debris.

"Morning sleepyhead!" Harper greeted him with a grin. She was covered in mud. :"I was worried you were never going to wake up. Or that the ghost got you."

Liam shot her a dirty look, finishing up his piece of toast. "You could have woken me up."

She just continued to grin at him innocently, "Oh I definitely tried. You were out like the dead." She turned to face Jax, who was a little less mud covered than she was, "He had a nightmare last night."

"Thanks, Harps," Liam glared, "You could have kept that little bit of information to yourself. I didn't have a nightmare either. The storm just woke me up."

"Mhmm," Harper said with a sly look on her face, "You just don't want me to tell Jax that you screamed like a girl and made me come in there to protect you."

Liam, who was close enough by now, shoved Harper slightly. "Can you stop trying to embarrass me for like half a second?"

"Where's the fun in that, bro?” Harper said with another grin, “He thinks he saw a ghost last night.”

Jax just turned to face Liam, who was now beet red, “That true? You wouldn’t be the first to think they’d seen a ghost in that house. The old owners used to see things in that house all the time.”

Liam cocked his head to the side, curious. “Is that true?”

Jax nodded, “It only happened on stormy nights though. They also thought they’d seen things ‘round the property. Back by the old barn.”

Liam felt himself get cold all over. They hadn’t had a chance to check out all of the property yet, mostly being focused on getting the house and front grounds cleaned. He hadn’t realized that there was a barn on the property. “Old barn?”

Jax nodded, “Don’t y’all know about your own property?”

“My mom has been pretty adamant about us not wandering off around the property,” Harper stated, dragging a particularly large branch over the pile of branches that she and Jax had been gathering all morning. "She won't even let us explore the house. We're pretty much just relegated to the kitchen, our rooms, and the library."

"Makes sense," Jax said with a shrug, "You don't know what kind of damage has been done to the house over the past twenty years. Same with the grounds. The previous owners never hired anyone to take care of the grounds while they were gone."

"I think we should check it out," Liam said suddenly, earning a surprised look from Harper. Usually she was the one that wanted to do things that they weren't supposed to do. She was the reason he usually ended up in detention so often at their old school.

"Are you sure about that?" Harper asked, "I mean I"m totally down for it but you're usually ... uncool about this breaking the rules thing.:

Liam stuck his tongue out at his step-sister, "I can be cool sometimes. I mean we're really not doing anything all that conducive to helping out with the house anyway."

"I'll have you know that Jax and I have been working very hard on clearing up all of these branches."

Jax let out a laugh, "You mean after I had to rescue you from that mud puddle?"

Harper rolled her eyes, "I could have rescued myself,, thank you."

"I was wondering why you were so covered in mud," Liam said snorting a bit. Harper was not known for being particularly graceful. Several trips to the hospital over the years could attest to this fact. "And yes. I really want to check out the rest of the grounds."

Jax grinned, "You're lucky that I happen to know a bit of the grounds myself. My Granddad was the last caretaker of the grounds twenty years ago. He used to bring me and my sister Lila up here just to look around every so often. At least until my dad found out and put a stop to it."

"Cool," Liam replied, feeling a little anxious to get to exploring the grounds. He wanted to see this barn that Jax had mentioned.

Jax motioned for the two of them to follow him as he started to head around the back of the house. The grounds really weren't in as bad shape as the could have been. There was a lot of overgrown bushes and the flowers had seen better days but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Jax lead them down an overgrown brick path, that wound around the house and continued around the back of the house. The path led directly down the back yard, on one side of the path was what must have been a lovely garden surrounding an old stone fountain. The other side opened up into a sparse overgrown field.

:"Y'all might be able to get my uncle to come out here and help straighten up the gardens," Jax told them. "He took over my granddad's business once he decided to retire. He does some pretty good work. He's kept up the gardens and yard work on some of the other old plantation homes in this town."

"Cool," Liam murmured, watching Jax's back as they continued to follow him down the path. "Helena would probably appreciate that. She was trying to get me and Harper to do it but I don't think she realizes that neither of us really have a talent for gardening. Harper just kind of likes digging in the dirt."

"I happen to find it soothing," Harper muttered, shoving at Liam. "I like weeding. I just really know how to do anything else. If your uncle would be willing to give me some tips I'd appreciate it. Liam on the other hand is not much of an outdoors man. He likes to bake."

"And I'm not ashamed to admit it either," Liam replied. "I make a pretty amazing Harry Potter inspired Butterbeer cake."

"That sounds pretty awesome" Jax said, turning his head a bit to offer Liam a grin, "Maybe You could make me one to take to my mama to try. She's always lookin' for new things to sell at the coffee shop. She wants to be adventurous."

Liam flushed a bit, "Erm... Okay. I'll do that sometime." He broke eye contact to look at Harper who was miming gagging. He shoved her gently and snorted when she almost tripped over her own feet. "How close are we to the barn?" He asked, glancing around his surroundings. Something about the area just seemed so ... familiar.

"It's just right around the corner, "Jax replied as the path wound around the edge of the garden, one that was beginning to feel more and more familiar with every step that they took.

Liam's eyes widened when the barn finally came into view. It was in very poor repair and the old willow tree off to the left of it was much larger than it was in his dream but it was just that.... the barn from his dreams. He ignored Harper and Jax as he moved closer to the barn, almost as if in a trance. He felt like he knew this barn.

"Liam?" Jax inquired gently. "You look a little spooked. You've gone all pale."

Liam just continued to ignore him as he walked closer and closer to the barn. He just... he just knew this place. He came close, reaching out to touch the old battered door. He knew on the other side of this door it was separated into four stalls. He knew that the stall farthest from the door is where the young man he'd been dreaming of had been found. He wanted to go in... He needed to see it for himself. He reached for the door, to open it and suddenly everything went dark.


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

"I'm sorry about that," CHarles whispered as he gently laid Benjamin down on an old cot. "I didn't realize the thunder would startle you so much seein' as you've been out in the storm all night."

"It's not your fault at all, sir," Benjamin replied, "I'd actually been out of it for most of the storm. I should have been expecting thunder to follow lightning. I guess I was just a little bit spooked."

Charles offered Benjamin a smile, "You don't have to go about callin' me sir. Charles will do just fine. Now I need to get you outta that shirt so that I can examine your bullet wound."

Benjamin gave Charles a cocky grin, "Well if you're going to be undressing me then I suppose you had better call me Ben. Benjamin is just too formal for someone who is going to see me mostly unclothed."

Charles scowled a bit at Benjamin as he worked to get him into a position that would be easy to remove his soaked jacket and shirt. "Do you think you can sit like this for a minute then, Ben?"

Benjamin winced and nodded, too winded to reply with a witty retort. Charles helped him remove his soaked jacket and ruined shirt. Underneath he wore another thin shirt that was caked with dark, dried blood. "Now this may hurt while I try to peel it off. I won't judge you if you faint on me."

"Good," Benjamin hissed out, "Because I think that I'm probably going to."

Charles removed the shirt, trying to be as gentle as possible with the other young man but he went limp in his arms as soon as he began to peel the fabric away with from the wound, slipping into unconsciousness.

\-------------  
"Liam! Liam, c'mon bud. You gotta wake up."

Liam felt someone shaking him, none too gently while still being held still by something else. "Liam wake up! Mom is going to have my head for going along with this. No! She's going to think it was my idea. The bad things are always my idea. Wake up idiot!"

Liam slowly blinked his eyes open, wincing as the bright light came in contact. "I'm up," He grunted. He was in a sitting position but he could tell that it wasn't by his own will. He was leaning up against... well he was leaning up against Jax's chest apparently. Jax was kneeling on the ground beside him, one hand on his back keeping him in an upright position but he was definitely slumped towards the other boys chest.

"So... What happened?" Liam managed to mumble, not making a move to sit up on his own, his head was spinning a little too much.

"You fainted like a giant idiot," Harper replied from his other side. Her hand was resting on his shoulder and she had clearly been the one trying to shake him awake. "We're not going to tell my mother about this because she will straight up murder us both. Got it?"

Liam nodded, still feeling a little disoriented. "I think I might be dehydrated." He mumbled trying to think of an explanation for his fainting episode.

 

"Dehydrated my ass," Harper grumbled under her breath. "You never leave breakfast without downing a ton of water."

"I was in a hurry this morning," Liam muttered. "I had to make sure you weren't out here doing anything stupid."

"Stupid like fainting and almost impaling yourself on a tree branch?" Harper countered. "Because you almost did that." She pointed over near where they were and where a large tree branch lying on the ground. There was a pointed end sticking straight up. "You're lucky that Jax was here and that he was able to catch you before your stupid face met that branch."

Liam took a deep breath, struggling a bit to sit up., "Well, thanks for that?" He offered Jax weakly, trying to grin it off.

"You're very welcome. I wouldn't want anything to happen to that pretty face of yours.\,," Jax replied, offering him a bit of a saucy grin, "Why don't you go get Liam a glass of water Harper. I'll sit you here with him until get back."

Harper nodded quickly, "Of course. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"You really can't talk," Liam muttered, allowing himself to relax against Jax a bit. If this cute southern boy was going to flirt with him he'd take it.

Harper just pointed two fingers towards her eyes and then towards him, repeating the process. "I got my eye on you stupid."

"Actually I got my eye on him," Jax laughed. "Go get him a glass of water. I'm gonna get him off the ground and over towards one of the benches in the garden."

Harper nodded again and stalked off towards the house. Liam could hear her muttering under her breath the as she got further and further away.

"How about I get you up off this wet ground now," Jax said with a smile, "I'm sure your legs are all cold and muddy now."

"Crap," Liam muttered. "I made you dirty up your jeans."

"I'm alright with that," Jax laughed, helping Liam sit up a bit, maneuvering himself out from behind Liam, all the while keeping a steady hand on his back. He stood himself him and reached down to pull Liam into a standing position.

LIam tried not to wobble too much as he stood, reaching a hand out to steady himself against Jax's chest. He flushed brightly removing his hand quickly, "Thanks for that."

"Not a problem at all. You feelin' alright on your feet there?" Jax asked, placing a hand on Liam's elbow to help keep him steady. :"Wouldn't want you to fall right back over."

"I'm fine," Liam replied, "Just a little dizzy. Think you can help me over to the bench?:"

"You got it," Jax grinned, keeping his hand on Liam's elbow as he led him over towards an old stone bench in the garden. "I think my uncle can power wash these benches off and they'll be almost as good as new again. Or I could even borrow the power washer and do it myself. I find using that tool quite satisfying."

Liam smiled a bit at Jax, "You don't have to keep helping us out. I know this place gives you the creeps."

"I like helpin' y'all out quite a bit. It's rather relaxin'," Jax grinned, "And I happen like you. Why haven't you called me yet? I kinda thought we might've had a bit of a thing goin' on."

Liam felt his cheeks get super hot and he was immensely glad that Jax had helped him sit down before speaking or else he might have had another embarrassing thing happen, like maybe fainting again and braining himself on the rough stone bench. "I... I was going to. I'm just a little..."

"Shy?:" Jax asked, hand still resting on Liam's elbow even though he was no longer helping him walk. "No need to be shy with me."

"I was going to say confused," LIam laughed a bit. "I mean you're pretty wow. And I'm pretty... well I faint as you can see."

"I happen to think you're pretty wow too," Jax grinned, leaning in a bit closer to him. "I haven't met a boy quite as cute as you here in town."

Liam let out a rather unattractive snort, "I don't know about that. Mr. Johansen is quite a looker," he said mentioning the owner of the little grocery store he had met the other day. The man had to be at least ninety years old but Liam noticed that his age didn't stop him at all from running around the store like a little old lightning bolt.

"That is true," Jax said with a devilish grin, "That man is incredibly handsome. He doesn't have your charm though."

"Now you've got to be joking," Liam laughed, "I have about as much charm as that blade of grass." He motioned towards the ground with an exaggerated hand movement.

Jax just grinned and him and leaned ever so closer, "I happen to find that grass very charming." If he leaned in much closer their lips would be touching.

As badly as Liam really wanted Jax to kiss him he suddenly felt the need to ask him about the house. He put his hand on Jax's chest, leaning himself away just a hair, "Can I ask you something serious?"

Jax nodded, settling himself up a little straighter, looking slightly disappointed that he hadn't gotten a chance to kiss Liam when he had the chance.

"What can you tell me about the house?" Liam asked. "I know everyone in town thinks it's haunted... but why?"

Jax let out a bit of a sigh, "You're awfully curious aren't you? I thought you said you didn't believe in that kind of stuff."

Liam shrugged his shoulders, "Well I didn't think that I did believe in any of that kind of thing but I've been having dreams and they've been... about the house. The first night I got here I dreamt about this exact same barn. I didn't even know this barn existed until you brought it up today yet I dreamt about it my first night here. Everything was exactly the same... well apart from the age of the barn. In my dream it looked as though it had just been built not too long ago."

Jax regarded him with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Are you sure it was this barn and just not a standard barn?"

"I dreamt about the house too," Jaz murmured. "I had another dream about the barn last night and in this dream the house was also in it. And then when I woke up... I thought I saw something in the shadows... It was ... Never mind. I think I sound crazy."

"You don't sound crazy," Jax was quick to say, moving his hand down from Liam's elbow to has hand. :"I'm not kiddin' when I say that people think this place is haunted. People from town have seen things on the grounds and some of the old caretakers had seen things in the house. No one was ever really frightened of it though. No one ever thought the things they were seeing were going to hurt them."

Liam nodded, feeling slightly brave enough to lean forward and rest his forehead on Jax's shoulder. "That's good," he murmured. He felt Jax tilt his head to rest it against his own.

"Aren't you two getting chummy?" Harper announced as she returned with a large glass of water. "I'm gone for less than ten minutes and you two are getting all snuggly. Totally not cool guys."

Liam jolted up, nearly crushing his head against Jax's. He yelped out an apology as Jax laughed.

Harper thrust the glass of water out to her brother. "I managed a daring journey to the house and into the kitchen avoiding my mother. She's only managed to unpack the good glassware for some reason. She'll murder us if she sees it's been brought outside. I did, however, run into your father. He says another bout of storms are coming..." She began, just before a loud crack of thunder sounded.

"Shit," Liam cursed. He hadn't even noticed the darkening sky, or the steady way that the breeze around them was starting to pick up. He hadn't even noticed that there was a light spray of rain beginning.

"Shit," Jax agreed. "I rode my bike out here this morning. There's no way I'll make it back home before this storm starts..."

"You can always hang out in the house with us," Harper suggested. "My mom said she'd let us work on re-wallpapering some the rooms upstairs if we behave ourselves."

"I always behave," Liam retorted, standing up. He didn't miss the way that Jax slid his fingers between his own as Jax also began to stand.

"You almost died on a tree branch today," Harper retorted.

"You broke your wrist after taking a misstep on the bottom step of a step stool. And then again over the couch foot rest."

"I was behaving in all of those instances," Harper replied huffily.

"You were trying to strangle Maura Blackburn in the second instance," Liam replied.

"Maura should have known better than to interrupt my favorite movie at our sleepover."

Liam rolled his eyes before making eye contact with Jax, "Want to help us do some manual labor in the house?"

Jax gave Liam's hand a bit of a squeeze, "I've never been in this house before but I've always wanted to go in. So... Sure. I'll help. Someone has to climb up on the ladder for y'all. Both y'all seem to be space cases."

Harper looked quite offended at that but Liam let out a loud laugh, "You probably have that right." He gave Jax's hand a slight tug, "Helena wanted you to come by for lunch today anyways."

The slight drizzle began to increase as the finally started to make their journey back through the garden and towards the house. By the time they finally reached the house the drizzle had become a full blown downpour and the three of them were absolutely soaked.

They trudged inside, sneakers squelching uncomfortably as they fought to remove them. Harper managed to wrestle hers off first and was tasked with ninja-ing the good glass back into the kitchen before her mom caught them.

"We're pretty drenched," Liam laughed, finally letting go of Jax's hand, a bit reluctantly. "I might have something for you to change into if you want to follow me. I'll give you an official tour... of what I'm allowed to after we change."

Jax nodded, shaking his head allowing droplets of water to fly all over the floor, "It's a little chilly in here."

"My dad does not handle the Georgia heat very well," Liam replied, "It's the only thing that he really stood his ground on before we moved down here. He wanted there to be central air and he wanted it before we moved down here so Helena had it installed."

"The Georgia heat ain't all that bad," Jax drawled, following Liam as they made their way through the house towards the bedrooms.

"We're from Maine," Liam replied, as if that would explain everything. Jax didn't really respond so he figured it did. "My room is here."

Jax followed him into the room and Liam suddenly felt self-conscious of all of his Harry Potter books sitting proudly on display with a few other pieces of memorabilia. He didn't need to be too embarrassed because Jax's face lit up with excitement as he glanced around the room.

 

"I really like what you've done with the place," Jax said with a grin as he continues to look around Liam's mess of a room. There were clothes on the floor and the books other than his beloved Harry Potter books were stacked in haphazard stacks on his bookshelves. "I see that your Harry Potter collection was top priority." He offered Liam a softer smile, "I approve of this."

"Thanks?" Liam replied, hurrying around his room to pick up his dirty clothes and toss them in his dirty laundry hamper. "Sorry about the mess. I wasn't really expecting company."

"You do realize that I'm also a teenage boy?" Jax said with a laugh. "Your room is surprisingly cleaner than mine and you're still in cardboard boxes. Any reason for that?"

"I have no excuse," Liam said with a sigh. "It's just pure laziness on my part. I'm usually to exhausted helping out around this place I just pass out on my bed. I'll eventually unpack. I have to get this place organized before school starts up."

"Thankfully you've still got plenty of time," Jax stated. "I thought you were gonna offer me something to wear. These clothes aren't getting any more comfortable.'

"Ah right... sorry. I got distracted," Liam flushed and went over to his dresser and pulled open the bottom drawer. He rummaged around looking for a pair of his larger sweatpants. On top of being relatively short he was also quite slender. He hoped he'd be able to find something that would fit Jax. "I'm a lot shorter than you so these are probably going to look ridiculous on you." He finally found a pair of sweatpants that he was pretty sure were his ex-boyfriends. He wasn't quite sure how they ended up mixed in with his clothes. Jason had probably ended up with a pair of Liam's own sweats. He handed the pants over to Jax. "These should fit you."

"Thanks," Jax grinned, already working on undoing his belt buckle and the button on his jeans. "I don't even mind if they're short. Ain't nothin' worse than wet jeans."

Liam flushed and turned away as Jax began to slide his wet jeans down his hips. He made a big show of digging through his drawer in search of another pair of sweatpants for himself. "You got a shirt for me too?" Jax asked when Liam finally turned back around with his own pair of sweats in hand.

"Yeah, sure. At least I think I should. Again... I'm a lot ... smaller than you," Liam tossed his sweatpants over his shoulder and wandered over to his closet to rummage through through it to find a shirt for Jax. He finally settled on a larger white undershirt that probably belonged to his father. He turned around to face Jax and he nearly dropped his mouth open in shock.

Jax had already removed his soggy t-shirt and was standing there shirtless. Liam was sure he had to be dreaming because no teenage boy his age had muscles like that. He just quickly tossed the shirt at Jax and hid in his closet to change feeling incredibly inadequate to the other boy standing in his room.

He heard banging on his bedroom door followed by Harper loudly declaring that they should stop fooling around and come down to eat lunch before they began re-wallpapering the rooms on the second floor of the house. Liam was flushing as bright as a tomato by the time he finally faced Jax again. "Sorry about her. She literally has no manners. I have no idea where she learned that from because Helena is practically a southern belle."

Jax just grinned at him, "She'll get along famously with my sister. She has absolutely no sense of manners either. My mama has banned her from working at the coffee shop because she's so damn judgmental."

"Then they should probably never meet then. They would offend the entire town just by standing together."

Jax laughed, "Lila needs some friends. She's too damn smart for her own good. And judgey."

"Harps isn't too great at making friends," Liam sighed. "Jason and I were pretty much her only friends at school. Sometimes I felt like a third wheel on my own dates."

"Jason?" Jax asked with an arched eyebrow.

LIam shrugged, "He was my boyfriend before Helena and my dad decided to uproot us. We realized we were better friends than boyfriends before we made the move though."

"Good to know."

"Well... we should head downstairs before Harper comes banging on the door again. I think I've embarrassed myself enough today." Liam opened his bedroom door and motioned for Jax to follow him. “I’ll try not to do something stupid, like trip down the stairs.”

“Well if you do I promise I’ll be right here to catch you. I won’t even laugh at you first.”

“Thanks,” Liam said with a roll of his eyes, leading Jax down the stairs and through the hallway and into the kitchen. “This is my favorite room in the whole house.”  
Jax took a moment to look around the kitchen. There were still cardboard boxes off to the side of the kitchen but those mostly just held nonessential items, like old plastic wear and plastic cups. One of these days Liam was going to have to hunt down his favorite Harry Potter tervis. "This kitchen is huge," Jax said with a low whistle. "And something smells delicious in here."

Helena offered up a huge smile from where she was pulling a casserole dish out from the oven. "Why thank you darlin'. You must be Jackson Larrimore, Jameson's son. I'm Helena Wilson-Fitzpatrick. I went to school with your daddy."

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Wilson-Fitzpatrick. My dad told me all about your antics in high school ."

Helena let out a laugh, "Please just call me Helena. Wilson-Fitzpatrick is such a mouthful. And I'm sure he told you about the time I stole his boxers and strung 'em up the flagpole."

Harper let out a gasp from where she was wrestling Henry into his highchair. "Mama you never told me about that."

"Of course not sweetie," Helena replied, setting the casserole dish on a bright blue paisley shaped trivet on the counter. "Can't have you following in my footsteps now, can I?"

"Think you failed there, Helena," Liam claimed. "Harper is a beast."

Harper stuck her tongue at Liam, finally succeeding in getting Henry in his chair. "I just like to have fun. Where's the fault in that?"

"Baby," Helena began, "You're idea of fun is causing others emotional trauma."

Harper just shot Jax a grin, "It's kind of my specialty. Don't think you'll get off easy because you're nice to Liam. No one is safe. Especially not Liam."

Liam flushed and shot Harper a dark look, "You talk too much Harper."

"It's one of my charming qualities. I'm starving mama."

"The macaroni just came out of the oven, darlin'. Give it a second to rest."

"If I wait any longer I'm afraid I will perish," Harper claimed, dramatically flopping onto a barstool at the island.

"Then you can get out the salad fixin's and start with that."

Liam had already made his way towards the refrigerator and had started pulling out washed lettuce, carrots, peppers, onions, and such, with the help of Jax.

"Liam's already on it," Harper claimed but stood up to go rummage through the counters for plates to eat on. "Mama makes the best macaroni. I've pretty much been daydreaming about it since I woke up this morning."

"I'm glad you like it so much, darlin' just make sure you actually leave some for Nathan and my daddy. They'll be in here in a few minutes. They've been wrestlin' with shelves in the library all day. Your daddy is more trouble than he's worth sometimes, Liam."

"So I've heard," Liam replied, grabbing two plates from the stack that Harper was carrying for himself and Jax.  
"Don't tell him I said that," Helena said quickly. "I do appreciate all of his help. Even if sometimes he's more trouble than he's worth."

"I'd be willin' to help out, ma'am," Jax said with a charming smile. "You know my granddaddy used to work in this house years ago. He used to tell me all about it and I'd love to help out."

"Oh I couldn't ask you to do that," Helena said with a smile, "I can't afford to pay you."

"That's why I'm offerin' to help. I'd really love to. It'll feel like I'm close to my granddaddy again."

"If you insist," Helena said with a laugh, "You can help Harper and Liam with the wallpaperin' today. You ever put up wallpaper before?"

"I have indeed, ma'am. I helped my mama wallpaper her coffee shop before she opened it. I was free labor then too."

Helena gave him a grin and began to dish out large portions of of gooey, cheesy noodles topped with a crunchy breadcrumb topping. "Make sure you all eat some salad."

"Got it, Helena," Liam said with a small salute as he added a pile of lettuce on his plate next to his macaroni. He topped it with chopped carrots, peppers and was about to add some onions when Harper caught his eyes and mimed a no, mouthing, 'What if he wants to kiss you?' nodding her head in Jax's direction.

Jax, who was not paying any attention to Harper had already sprinkled some onions on his own salad so Liam rolled his eyes and added his own before drizzling italian dressing on top of it.

\-------------------

After lunch the storm outside picked up even more, the wind outside was howling and whipping the trees around at an almost troubling speed.  
“You might get stuck here tonight,” Harper said with a wink when the trudged up the stairs to begin wallpapering in one of the rooms that would become a lovely suite for the bed and breakfast when they finally opened for business.

“I can think of worse things that could happen,” Jax replied, giving Liam a bit a smirk when he caught his eye.

Liam felt himself flush. It was going to be a long afternoon.

Harper pulled a short step-stool into the room they were going to start working on and pulled it up to the wall and made a movement to step on the first step but Jax hurried over and bodily lifted her away from it. "I don't think so short stuff. I'll do all the climbing. You can work on smoothing down the bottom and your brother can stand there and look cute while holding the supplies."

Harper gave Jax a dirty look. "I'm not really as clumsy as this asshole makes me out to be. I'm just a little bit."

Liam, meanwhile, was just standing there blushing at Jax's comment on him being cute. He was kind of having a hard time believing that this handsome southern boy found him attractive. He was just so... handsome and Liam was just so... Liam.

"Have you ever actually put up wallpaper before shortness?" Jax asked as he climbed up on the step-stool motioning for Liam to come closer with the first roll of wallpaper.

Harper let out a harrumph, "No but it's not like it's that hard." She said with a pout as she flopped down on the floor to get into position. "And you can stop making fun of my height any time now."

Jax gave her a grin, "Nah. It's funny how angry it makes you." He began to get to work, using a level to draw a straight and level line down the wall. He then put the paper into position and smoothing it down along the line. He then worked on smoothing down the air bubbles. He made quick work of it, like he'd done it many times before. He gently guided Harper on how to do her part all the while Liam just stood there holding the level and paste.

It took several tries for Jax and Harper to get the hang of working together but once they did they quickly got the room wallpapered. Jax then stood in the center of the room eyeing his and Harper's handiwork. "You make a mighty fine apprentice, shortness. Everything looks nice and smooth and even."

"Sweet," Harper grinned, ignoring his comment on her height for the time being. "Ready to move on to the next one?"

"Absolutely."

\----------------

By the time dinner rolled around the storm outside hadn't gotten any better. In fact it seemed to have escalated. The winds were howling at top speed and Liam commented that he was afraid they'd lose some of the siding on the front of the house.

"Please don't even joke about that," Helena lamented from where she was sitting in the kitchen. "We can't afford to get any further behind schedule. We're supposed to open up before y'all head back to school and I lose my free labor."

Liam rolled his eyes. He was standing at the island chopping up onions. He'd decided that Harper and Jax could handle wallpapering without him and he'd start on dinner. He was actually a pretty excellent cook. Surprisingly Helena's cooking abilities only extended to making killer macaroni. Other than that every meal she produced was just sub-par and tasteless. "I'm just a little worried." He shrugged. He carried his chopped onions over to a skillet on the stove that was heating. He dropped the onions onto the skillet, grinning when they let out a little sizzle.

"Me too, darlin," Helena replied. She was fussing with Henry, trying to get him to eat some of the cucumber she had peeled for him to eat. Henry was having none of it. "Your little friend is probably going to be stuck here tonight. The driveway is probably goin' to be washed out from all of the rain."

"I don't think he'll mind too much," Liam said, trying not to flush. He used a spatula to stir the onions around. "Can you bring me the ground beef, Helena?"

"Sure thing, love. Think we got enough food for all of us for dinner tonight? I'm sure my daddy is gonna be stuck here tonight too. He won't be to happy about it. He's more than happy to help out durin' the day but he likes to be out of here before dark." Helena went over to the refrigerator and pulled out a pound of packaged ground beef before thinking better of it and pulling out a second. She brought both of the packages over and opened them up for Liam, leaving them set on the counter.

"I think we'll be alright tonight," Liam replied, dumping both packages of beef into the skillet. He used the spatula to break the meat up and stir it around. "I'm still a little full from lunch. Harper is the one we have to worry about. She eats like a freaking soldier sometimes."

Helena let out a bark of laughter, "She gets that from her daddy. He would eat us out of house and home. You'd be surprised to know that my grocery bill is actually less even with three extra mouths to feed. Although sometimes Harps does put a hurtin' on the food."

Liam nodded, standing on his tiptoes and reaching overhead to pull out spices to add to the ground beef. He liked to make his own taco seasoning rather than use one of the overly salty prepacked stuff. He added a dash of cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, and cilantro to his beef. He continued to stir the beef around, adding spices every so often. He had Helena put the taco shells into the oven to warm up. While he had the beef simmering he moved over to the island to chop up tomatoes and green onions. Helena pulled out a jar of green olives and a few fresh avocados. Liam expertly cut into the avocados, sprinkling a little lemon juice on them to stop them from turning brown before dinner got started.

"Do you think I can trust you to drain the beef while I round everyone up for dinner?" He teased Helena as he turned the heat off of the beef.

"I've been cookin' longer than you've been alive, smarty pants. I can certainly drain off the beef. Make sure Harps and that young man clean up before they head down here to eat, alright?"

Liam raised two of his fingers to his temple in a mock salute, "Yes ma'am." He headed out of the kitchen, ruffling Henry's hair on the way out causing the toddler to let out a shriek of delight.

The lights flickered in the hallway as Liam turned out of the kitchen to head towards the stairs. He felt himself stiffen up, he had a strange feeling. It was cold in the hallway. Colder than it usually was. He felt like something was behind him and he was trying to bring up the courage to turn around and see what it was when two pairs of thundering footsteps came down the stairs.

Liam shook off his unease as he rounded the corner to the stairs and caught Jax grabbing Harper's arm to stop her from tumbling down the stairs head first. "The accounts of your clumsiness are not exaggerated," Jax said with a laugh as he helped Harper regain her footing.

"Okay. I admit it now. I'm a freaking clumsy mess," She had a tiny pout on her face as she swatted away Jax's hands on her arms. "Brother dear! My dinner senses are tingling. Is it time to eat?"

Liam rolled his eyes and nodded. "I was just on my way to come and get you. Did you clean up?"

Jax nodded, "Harper wanted to come down here as soon as she smelled onions cooking. I'll admit I didn't smell a damn thing. She must have some strong senses. I wouldn't let her come down until we finished the last room and cleaned up our mess."

"Helena will thank you for that," Liam said with a grin. "I'm sure she's going to come upstairs after dinner and inspect the work you guys have done. It has to be Helena approved."

"Well I certainly hope I pass her standards. Are y'all sure you don't mind me staying for dinner?" Jax asked a little shyly. "I already intruded on lunch. I don't really want to be a bother."

"We're not going to throw you out in the storm. Visibility is like zero outside. I'm sure Helena is going to insist on you staying here tonight. That is if you don't mind."

"Course not," Jax replied with a smile. "Now what's for dinner? It smells pretty amazing down here."

Liam tried not to blush at that but he really couldn't control it. "It's just tacos. It's one of my specialties."

"Well I can't wait to try them. I'm surprisingly starvin'. And I love me some tacos." Jax reached over and looped an arm around Liam's shoulders. "And I'm sure yours are absolutely amazin'."

"That's what my dad says. Who you have not met yet. Oh my god you're going to meet my dad," Liam muttered, going pale. "He's going to know, you know."

"Know what?" Jax asked as they made their way into the kitchen.

"Nothing," Liam squeaked. "Nothing. Um... taco shells and stuff are still in the oven. Unless Helena pulled them out."

"I have not, dear. Thanks for remindin' me." Helena hurried over to the oven and pulled out the cookie sheet that had hard shells and soft shells warming on them. “Harps do you think you can get Hen to eat his cucumbers? He’s been fightin’ me all evenin’.”

“I got it madre,” Harper replied, sitting down next to Henry. “Make me like six tacos.”

Liam and Helena shared a look as they started building tacos. Jax watched them for a few moments before jumping right in.

They all gathered around the kitchen table and had started to dig in by the time Liam’s father and Helena’s father came into the kitchen.

Nathan looked exhausted as he piled meat and cheese onto shell and slumped into a seat beside his wife. Helena gave him a peck on the cheek before turning to feed Henry little bites of meat and cheese. Nathan blinked a few times when his eyes landed on Jax. “You’re not one of mine,” He said with a grin. “Nathan Wilson-Fitzpatrick.”

Jax offered him a charming grin, “Jackson Larrimore. Although I like to go by Jax. It’s nice to meet you sir.”

“Please call me Nathan,” He said with a smile. “Now how did you end up trapped here during this storm?”  
“Well I came by the other day when Harper and Liam were out working on the trees and I decided to help them out. I had such a good time I thought I’d come back,” Jax continued still being an an incredibly charming young man. “I had quite a good time teachin’ Harper how to hang wallpaper today. She only managed to accidently wallpaper her hand into the wall about half a dozen times.”

Harper shot him a dark look before taking a massive bit of her taco.

"I'm glad Harper only managed to make minimal damage." Nathan stated as he slumped down in his chair. "Usually when we have her do something there's a mound of destruction and Liam left standing in the middle looking like he'd gone through a hurricane." Nathan took a bite of his taco and gave his son a thumbs up.

"Sure. Let's all pick on Harper tonight," Harper muttered under her breath with a pout. "I'll have you know that Liam did nothing to help. He just stood there and held the supplies."

"Hey!" Liam exclaimed. "I came down here and cooked dinner. If I hadn't we'd be eating frozen pizza again. We all know that I'm pretty much the only one around here that can cook."

"And y'all are opening a bed and breakfast?" Jax asked with a laugh. "That requires quite a lot of food preparations."

Liam just raised his hand. "That will be all on me until we make enough money to hire a professional. At least I like to cook."

"And you're very good at it too, darlin'. You know how much I appreciate you." Helena said with a warm smile. "We'd all starve to death without him. Or we'd be living off frozen food."

"Yeah. Thank god you married Nathan, mom. We got the better end of the bargain," Harper said standing up to go get another taco. She passed her grandfather who was sitting slumped in a seat, sleeping at the table. "Mom... You've warn grandpa out again."

Helena laughed, "My poor old daddy. I suppose I should have gone a little easier on him today. I'll get him some food and set up one of the rooms for him to stay the night in. Oh... Maybe I should set up two."

"That's alright, ma'am. I can stay with Liam. Won't bother me at all," Jax said with a polite smile. "I wouldn't want to put you out."

"Are you sure?" Helena asked with an arch of her eyebrow. "That boys room is a mess. It wouldn't be too much of a bother."

"I'm perfectly sure ma'am. Honestly I'm a little too spooked to stay by myself in this house anyway."

"Oh don't tell me you believe all that haunted house nonsense," Helena said with a laugh. "I'd come out here plenty of times as a teenager and I never saw anything out of the ordinary."

"Mom, stop making Jax feel uncomfortable," Harper said, nudging her mom as she returned to the table to sit down. "This place is creepy as hell at night. Especially when it's storming like this. I went and slept in Liam's room last night."

Liam was grateful she didn't mention anything about him seeing things last night and made it seem like she was the one scared. She usually would have thrown him under the bus.

"I'm sorry, dear," She said to Jax. "I just know that people in town all say this place is haunted. I just think that it needs a little TLC and no one will be afraid of it anymore. And if you want to stay in Liam's room that's just fine with me. I can get you some pillows and blankets."

"I'll sleep on the floor," Liam blurted out. "I mean it's only fair. You deserve the bed after all of the hard work you put into helping us out tonight."

Helena gave Liam a bright grin, "Aren't you a sweetheart? I'll take care of the dishes for you all tonight."

"Are you sure ma'am?" Jax asked. "I was definitely going to volunteer to do them for y'all."

"Suck up," Harper coughed under her breath.

"That's too nice of you, darlin'," Helena said, shooting Harper a sharp look. "How about I wash and you dry? I'd like to talk to you about your mama and daddy. You can give me all the gossip I've missed out on this town."

"That would be nice, ma'am," Jax smiled. He looked over at Liam and gave him a grin. "Thanks for cookin' for us tonight. It was delicious."

Liam flushed again, "While you guys are doing that I'm going to go... Clean my room. I was not expecting company tonight."

"Alright, love. Harper I'm gonna set you on the task of settin' up a room for grandpa. Nathan... you just go be yourself."

Nathan let out a weary sigh, "No more work tonight?"

"Nah. It's gettin' too dark to really see properly, even with the new lights. How about you put the leftovers, if there are any, up?"

"I got it," Nathan said, standing up. He gave Helena a kiss on the cheek before moving to the island to start packing up what little food was left over.

\---------------------------------

Liam was hastily cleaning up his room, shoving things under the bed or in the closet. He stumbled around looking for his laptop, to set up some movies to watch after they got everything settled for the night. He found it under a pile of clothes he'd shoved under his bed. He stripped the sheets from his bed and tossed them onto the floor before wandering into the hallway towards one of the many linen closets in the house to find a clean pair for Jax to sleep on.

He ran into Harper in the hallway, "What are you doing?" She asked indicating the pile of sheets in his hands. "Are you putting clean sheets on your bed? I doubt he cares."

"Well I do," Liam replied. "He already thinks I'm a slob. He saw my room earlier."

"And he's still willing to stay here. Dude, can't you just act like a teenage boy for once? I swear sometimes you're like forty."

"I'm trying to make a good impression, okay? I think he likes me."

Harper let out a laugh, “He’s super into you, bro. He was making heart eyes at you all dinner. I’m surprised mom didn’t object to him sleeping in here with the way you two were mooning over each other.”

"We were not 'mooning'. We were just occasionally looking at each other. For extended periods of time."

"Mooning," Harper said with a grin. "And because I love you bro, I'll help you make your bed."

"I can do it on my own," Liam huffed, but allowed Harper to take half of the sheets.

"I'm sure you can,"Harper replied, "But I feel like helping you not screw up. I feel kinda bad about you and Jason breaking up. You guys were cute together. And he still texts you every day."

"We were always better as friends," Liam said with a sigh. "And how do you know he still texts me every day?"

"He texts me every day too. We like to gossip about how unfortunate you can be sometimes." Harper started pulling sheets onto Liam's bed with minimal effort. Every time Liam would put new sheets on his bed he always ended up tangled in them somehow and he usually conceded without actually putting them on straight. "I may have told him about Jax."

Liam froze from where he was creating a pile of blankets and pillows on the floor next to the bed. "You told him about Jax? Why would you do that?"

Harper just shrugged as she got the comforter settled on his bed neatly. "I figured you'd never tell him. Besides he gives his full blessing and wants you to call him and talk to him about it. Apparently he wants to live vicariously through your love life."

"He hasn't found anyone?" Liam asked, feeling a little guilty about trying to move on from Jason. He knew they were better friends but Jason was his first boyfriend, first kiss, first awkward fumbling. He was his first everything.

"He told me to tell you not to feel guilty about it. Because he knows you and he knows that you will feel that way. And he's kind of got someone he's interested in and he doesn't want you to feel jealous over that either. Honestly what do you guys talk about when you text?"

Liam shrugged, "Mostly just Harry Potter."

"You can be such a child sometimes. I feel like I'm orchestrating your love life and I don't even care about that kind of stuff. But I do care about you. So stop being stupid."

"Why is Liam being stupid?" Jax inquired as he made his way into the room carrying a plate of chocolate chip cookies and three glasses of milk on a tray. "Helena insisted I bring these up while we watch movies. She also told me to tell you guys not to worry about the cookies because they're just Chips Ahoy. I feel like there's a story there..."

"Salt," Harper and Liam replied at the same time.

"Salt?"Jax asked gingerly setting the tray on the end of Liam's made bed.

"She got the salt and sugar mixed up," Harper replied. "It was absolutely horrifying." She gagged a bit at the memory. "I can still taste it when I think about it."

"Me too," Liam winced. "I can't even begin to describe the horror of what they tasted like. Just... Helena is not allowed to bake anymore."

"I can see why," Jax laughed. "My mom's banned my sister from helpin' out in the bakery for the same reason. Although several of Lila's pastries had actually been sold to customers by the time my mom realized what had happened. It was quite embarrassin' for the longest time. People still gingerly taste their goodies if Lila is behind the counter."

"We're lucky it was just us," Liam said. "They were supposed to be for a bake sale at school but Harper and I taste tested one even though Helena told us not to. It's a good thing that we did too. We had to run to Walmart and sell some of their bakery cookies."

Harper made another gagging sound, still remembering the taste of the cookies. After she collected herself she flopped herself down on Liam's cocoon of blankets on the floor. "What movie are we going to watch before the power goes out and we can't find any in your jumbled collection?" She asked motioning to Liam's DVD collection on the bottom of one of his bookshelves.

"Harry Potter," Liam and Jax both replied at the same time, laughing a bit when they realized this.

"Ugh. You two are so gross," Harper groaned. "Which one?"

"Prisoner of Azkaban," the both replied in sync. Liam shot Jax a shy smile who returned it with a wide grin. "Good taste," He replied.

"Thanks?" Liam answered as Harper dug the movie out of the pile on his shelf. "I have an actual TV and DVD player but we haven't unpacked it. We're going to have to settle for crowding around my computer to watch it."

"That's fine with me," Jax said, gingerly sitting on the bed as to not jostle the tray of cookies and milk. "It's gonna be quite cramped up here though."

"I'm good down here," Harper replied, getting herself all cuddled on the floor, leaning against the bed, "Just make sure you angle it towards me and we'll be golden."

Liam also climbed onto the bed, after picking his laptop up off the floor. He was very careful to not jostle the cookies and milk. "Will you plug this in so we'll at least have a fully charged computer before we loose power again?"

"Got it," Harper replied, taking the charger and plugging it into the wall by the bed, "Wanna hand me a glass of milk before you spill everything all over my nicely made bed?"

Jax reached around Liam to hand Harper one of the three glasses of milk before taking one for himself. Liam booted his laptop up, leaning back against the headboard. He opened the DVD drive and placed the movie in waiting for a few moments for the DVD select screen to pop up on the computer. Jax settled back next to him, holding his and Liam's glass of milk in his hands and he pulled the tray closer to them with his foot.

As Jax got more comfortable against the headboard, his shoulder brushed against Liam's, he offered Liam as smile as Liam pressed play on the DVD. "Milk?"

"Thanks," Liam smiled taking the glass of milk from Jax's hands, flushing slightly as Jax's fingers brushed his own. When Jax finally removed his hand from the glass he stretched a bit and rested his arm around the headboard. Harper shot Liam a look from the floor and then winked at him. Liam just picked up a cookie from the tray at his feet and threw it at her.

Harper caught the cookie with a grin, "Thanks, bro. I wanted that." She dunked the cookie in her milk and took a big bite of it, settling herself in to watch the movie.

Liam let his guard down during the movie, munching on cookies and drinking milk. He and Jax even quoted along with the movie causing Harper to groan and call them nerds from her spot on the floor. As the movie played the storm got even louder and more intense. Liam was honestly surprised that that the house hadn't blown away. Towards the end of the movie the power blacked out, cutting off Liam's desk light net to Jax. Jax jolted a bit when they were plunged into sudden darkness, the only light coming from the faint glow of the movie playing on the laptop.

"You okay?" Liam murmured, moving the laptop off his lap to face Jax better.

"I'm fine," Jax replied. "I just wasn't expectin' that. I mean I shoulda been but it just startled me." He leaned a little closer to Liam. "I'm alright though."

"Good," Liam whispered. "I wouldn't want you to be too scared." He also felt himself leaning closer to Jax. He knew where this was going and he was going to let Jax make the first move. Their lips were getting closer and closer when there was a loud sound of thrashing coming from the floor and a lot of sleepy grumbles.

Liam almost toppled backwards off the bed in shock but Jax grabbed his arm before that could happen. When Jax pulled him forward against his chest Liam started giggling quietly. "I forgot Harper was in here," He tried to whisper between quiet giggles.

Jax was also laughing quietly. "So did I," he murmured into the top of Liam's hair. "Is she asleep?"

Harper didn't reply but she did let out a little snore from the floor. "I think she's fully awake at least. She can't really make it through a Harry Potter movie without falling asleep."

"It looks like you've lost your bed," Jax said in a teasing voice. "Unless you're goin' to wake her up when the movies over."

"Haven't you ever heard the phrase "Never wake a sleeping bear?" because that's what she is. A bear. It's better to leave her to sleep. I can sleep down there with her. It's not like we've never done it before." He leaned over the side of the bed to see, in the faint glow from the laptop, that Harper had somehow managed to cocoon herself in all of the blankets and was curled up with all of the pillows. "Or not..."

"You know I don't mind you sleepin' up here," Jax said as Liam righted himself once again. "I don't think I'll hate the extra body heat. It's freezin' in here."

Liam nodded, feeling a little strange. It had steadily gotten colder in the room as their conversation progressed. "Yeah... It's a little chilly. Do you want to finish the movie before we go to bed? I'm sure you're exhausted with all the work you put into helping out Harper today."

"I am actually a little tired," Jax said sheepishly. "We can finish it in the mornin'? Right now I kinda just want to curl up and fall asleep."

Liam nodded, still feeling a little off as he went about clearing the bed without even getting off. He climbed to the end of the bed, feeling nervous as he quickly put everything onto the floor at the end of the bed. He hurriedly scooted back to the top of the bed where Jax had already turned onto his side, facing the computer desk, and pulled the covers up over his shoulders, curling slightly.

Liam quickly got under the covers, laying flat on his back. He felt like there was something watching him in the corner of the room on that Harper was laying on. He just pulled the covers up over his head and muttered a quiet good night to Jax who murmured one back. Liam heaved a quiet sigh and let himself clear his mind so that he could fall asleep. Within a few moments, Jax, who was already mostly asleep shuffled around on the bed, now facing Liam. Jax sleepily reached out and put a hand on Liam's arm, "Y'alright? You seem tense." He mumbled, mostly asleep.

"I'm fine," Liam murmured back, resting one of his hands on top of Jax's. "I think the storm is freaking me out a little more now that the movies over."

Jax sleepily moved his hand around to link his fingers through Liam's, "S'okay. M'here." A moment later Jax was breathing quite deeply, apparently falling asleep faster than Liam had thought possible. He kept his fingers tangled with Jax's as he closed his eyes.

Everything was okay. There was nothing freaky going on in the house. It was just the storm that had him so tense. That didn't stop him from closing his eyes tightly as a flash of lightning lit up the room. He still felt like there was something in there watching him and he really didn't want to see it. The longer he kept his eyes closed the closer he got to falling asleep. He finally just let himself fall, curling up closer to Jax, keeping their hands linked.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

"Nice to see that you finally woke up," Charles greeted Benjamin once Benjamin's eyes flickered open. "I was afraid I'd lose you durin' the night. Seems to me that you're a mighty stubborn man."

Benjamin let out a groan as he tried to sit up. It was still storming outside, the wind was just as bad as it had been the previous night, howling angrily. It must have been sometime during the day because it was only a dull gray in the room and not pitch black with a flickering candle. "My mother and father would agree with you," Benjamin replied breathlessly. "I would have thought me dying would have made your life easier. Us being on different sides and all."

Charles sat on the edge of the bed, holding a cup of water. "You need to drink this. You probably haven't had any fluids in a while and you've lost a lot of blood. And I don't care about this damned war. We had long since freed our slaves before the fightin' began. I only joined the army because the general threatened to kill my mother and younger sister. I never even did any fightin'. I just stitched up men. Men from both sides. That's why I'm here. Word got 'round that I was helping union and rebel soldiers alike and let's just say my general didn' like that too much. I guess you could say that I'm a deserter. I'm in just as much trouble round these parts as you are."

"You only saved my life because you didn't want to be lonely," teased Benjamin as he took the glass of water he was being offered. He downed it like a man dying of thirst.

"Slow down there," Charles warned, easing the glass away from Benjamin's lips. "You drink too much and you'll start a coughin' fit and might tear your stitches. You're not out of the woods yet. There's a chance the wound on your chest could be infected."

Benjamin just leaned back against the wall, "That sounds lovely." He took a deep breath and regretted it immediately as he felt a pain like no other.

"Alright now, you outta lay back down. You've gotta conserve your strength. We can't be in this house long. My mother and sister abandoned it right when I was taken by the army. It's been abandoned for months now. This is also the first place my troop is gonna look when they realize I'm missin'."

"Just my luck," Benjamin muttered as Charles helped him lay back down. "How long do you have?"

"I have at least two weeks. I was sent on a run for supplies that was supposed to take about a week to travel there and another week to travel back. The troop is about three days away from here. Once I don't return they're gonna come straight here lookin' for me." Charles said quickly. "I just came by to pick some clothes and let my horse rest. I was never expectin' to stay longer than the night."

"I'm sorry I ruined your plans," Benjamin muttered wryly. “Next time I’ll try to be more considerate as to where I stop when I’m bleeding out from two gunshot wounds.”

Charles flushed, looking a little angry. “I didn’ mean it like that. I just want you to rest up. You’ll have two weeks to get your bearins’ back but I can’t let you stay here any longer than that. I wouldn’ want anyone to shoot ya again. I put a lot of work into makin’ sure you didn’ bleed out in the night.”

Benjamin gave him a slow grin, “Ah so you just want to make sure you didn’t waste your time. You gonna let me travel with you when I’m fit?”

“Do you have a horse?” Charles asked, with his eyebrow raised.

“I don’t remember most of what happened last night due to being in crippling pain but I do vaguely recall telling you that I managed to lose my horse after being shot. Twice.”

Charles gave him a scathing look, “Well pardon me for not rememberin’. I was up most of the night makin’ sure you didn’ succumb to your injuries. I don’ remember much of what you said.” Charles felt himself worked into a fluster. He worked tirelessly through the night taking care of this man and he had the gall to act offended that he couldn’t remember one little detail he mentioned as he lay bleeding on the barn floor. Charles was more interested in taking care of the man than paying attention to what he was saying about his horse.

Benjamin let out a very small laugh, more like a huff of hair, “No need to get so upset handsome. I’m just teasin’ you. You’re awfully cute when you get angry. Your cheeks flush quite prettily.”

Charles felt his cheeks flush. This young soldier was awfully forward with his flattery. Charles was no stranger to attention from men who felt that way about other men. He knew that he was an attractive man, almost girlishly so with fine bone structure, big eyes, and full lips. He’d never met a man that was so… honest though. 

“Did I embarrass you?” Benjamin asked with a laugh. “I can’t say I’m sorry. You’re just as handsome when you blush.”

“I’m…” Charles began. “I’m gonna go get you some broth. You… you need to regain your strength. He turned and hurried out of the room.

“Hurry back now,” Benjamin called. “I’ll get lonely without you.”

“Oh hush you,” Charles called over his shoulder.

He heard the young soldiers laughter echoing behind him.  
\-------------------

For the first time in a week Liam woke up slowly and not with a sudden terrified jolt. He slowly blinked his eyes open, noticing that it was still quite dark in his his room so it was probably still in the early hours of the morning. He also noticed that it was still storming, but much quieter. He stretched a bit looking around his room. He regretted it immediately.

He remembered being scared to fall asleep last night because he felt like there was something lurking in the corner of his room. He was quite right. Standing in the corner of his room was the figure of the man he'd thought he'd seen the night before. The man was a little more solid than he'd seen him last night and he was just standing there, looking out the window, not moving. He had a look of concern on his ghostly face.

Liam very quietly turned his head towards Jax. Jax was still asleep, much closer than he'd been the night before. He was holding Liam's hand still, tugged close to his chest. Liam leaned close to him and nudged his head gently with his own. "Jax," he murmured quietly, turning his head to see if the figure of the man was still standing at the window. "Jax please wake up."

"Mmmh," Jax nuzzled in a bit closer to Liam, his head brushing Liam's jaw. "S'early." He drawled quietly, nuzzling in a bit closer.

"I need you to wake up," Liam said quietly, "And try not to react."

Jax's eyes fluttered open as he moved up in the bed a bit, still clutching at Liam's hand. "What're you on about?" He muttered quietly, eyes following towards where Liam was looking. He let out a quiet gasp and squeezed Liam's hand a bit tighter.

"So you see him too right?" He whispered, eyes never leaving the specter of the man standing in his window. A flash of lightning illuminated the room, lighting the figure of the man show that he was rather translucent.

"I do see him," Jax whispered, pulling Liam closer to his body. "What am I seein'? Are we even awake? Is this a dream?"

"I'm pretty sure it's not," Liam whispered back to Jax, letting himself be pulled closer to Jax's body. "This isn't the first time I've seen this either. Although it's the first time anyone else has."

"Why didn't you say anythin' to me before now?" Jax asked, still staring at the figure of the man standing in the window. "Why aren't we wakin' up Harper and gettin' out of here?"

“If we wake Harper we’ll just have a scene…. Jax, I've been dreaming of him," Liam replied. "I was dreaming of him when I woke up. He doesn't seem to be... angry or anything... does he?" Liam pulled himself a little bit out of Jax's grip as he sat up a little bit. “He seems… scared and lost.”

Jax inched himself into a sitting position, pulling Liam closer to himself. As if he were trying to keep Liam from getting out of the bed. “I’m not getting out of this bed,”Liam whispered, but allowed himself to be tugged closer to Jax.

"I didn't think so," Jax whispered in his ear, "but I just wanted to be sure. Who do you think that is? Was? Is?"

"Benjamin. His name is Benjamin," Liam blurted out suddenly remembering more of his dreams for the past week. "I don't know what he's doing here but I know his name is Benjamin."

Suddenly the male figure's head whipped towards their direction. He had a look of fear on his face as he backed towards the window. Liam turned his head in the direction the figure was looking but didn't see anything other than dark space. The figure of the man kept backing towards the window, his hands raised as if he were trying to placate someone. Lightning flashed surrounding the room in light. Suddenly the man's body jerked as if he had been shot and he fell backwards, hard. He fell backwards out of the window. He was gone.

Jax's arms tightened around Liam's body. He hadn't even realized it but he was shaking. "It's alright," Jax whispered. "I have you. It's alright."

"What just... what just happened?" Liam whispered, letting himself be held by Jax. "Did we just... What just happened?"

"Well it looks like we've met the ghost everyone in town has been so scared of. We seemed to have witnessed his death. I'm not even sure I'm not dreamin' right now," Jax muttered, his face pressed against the top of Liam's head.

"What do we do now?" Liam murmured. "This isn't like how I saw him the last time. The last time I saw him he seemed like he was trying to talk to me. Or like he wanted to. But Harper burst in and interrupted him. This was almost... a memory."

Liam was suddenly interrupted with his thoughts with a pillow to the face, "What the hell are you two doing? It's freaking ass o'clock in the morning." Harper hissed from her spot on the floor. "Go the hell back to sleep." She shifted around on the floor and promptly fell back asleep.

Liam and Jax just exchanged looks in the very faint light coming from the sunrise in the storm. They both started to laugh, the tense situation they'd felt before disappearing.

"Well," Jax began, reaching a hand up to touch Liam's cheek. "I suppose we should try to get back to sleep? Do you think you can do that?"

Liam shook his head no but started shifting down to lay back down. "I might be able to try if you don't let go of me," He whispered as Jax also settled back into the bed. "If you want to. You don't have to." He said quickly, but Jax was already pulling Liam into his arms.

"I don't think I mind holdin' you. You're a lot more ... cuddly than my last boyfriend." Jax pressed his lips to the top of Liam's face. "Try to get back to sleep."

Liam let out a soft huff and let himself be held. It wasn’t long until he drifted back to sleep. For once not dreaming of a young man in a Union uniform.

\---------

When Liam woke up again it was to Helena standing in the open doorway with her hands on her hips and a slight scowl on her face. He was still tangled up in Jax’s arms.

He blinked slowly and pulled himself out of Jax’s grip, causing Jax to let out a little huff and reach for him. “Erm… It’s not what it looks like?’” He said sheepishly.

“Oh honey of course it is,” Helena said with a sigh. “Y’all were making moon eyes at each other all night, I’m not mad you didn’t tell me what was goin’ on, even though I knew. I’m just a little disappointed. I hope y’all were safe.”

“Helena!” Liam exclaimed, flushing. “One- we haven’t even kissed yet. Two- we’re both fully clothed. Three- Harper is asleep on the floor!”

Instantly Helena’s demeanor changed from disappointed mother to one of a laughter. “Oh darlin’ I know that. I just like to see you get all flustered. Wake those two up and come down for breakfast. My daddy made pancakes.”

“I see see where Harper gets it from,” Liam griped. “And I hope for our sake that Mr. Wilson is a better cook than you are.”

“Honey, we’ve all told you that it’s alright if you call him grandpa. And he excels at pancakes. And not much else.” Helena laughed. “Much like me. We’re both one trick ponies.. Now y’all better be down in 10 minutes. Henry loves his grandpa’s pancakes.”

“Got it,” Liam replied, already gently shaking Jax awake. “Up and at ‘em. Apparently there are pancakes downstairs.”

Jax let out a little sound of discontentedness but eventually opened his eyes. “Mornin’, cutie.” He said with a sleepy smile. “Your hair is a hot mess.”

Liam flushed a bit. “Well I have you to thank for that… Thanks though. You were really helpful last night. I slept better after…”

“After we saw a ghost man get murdered?” Jax asked, trying to be helpful.

“Er... yeah. That. We have to wake up the monster now. I’m just gonna…” He began climbing out of the bed holding one of his pillows “stand over here and throw this at her and run. You better be ready to go too.”

Jax scrambled to get out of the bed, standing behind Liam, “You’ll protect me from her, right?”

“Eh,” Liam said with a shrug, “I suppose. You’re kind of cute.”

“Gee thanks,” Jax said with a roll of his eyes, “After all that I did for you. I mean I protected you from that ghost last night.”

“It wasn’t really doing anything, but I did appreciate the cuddles,” Liam said, surprising himself with his boldness.

“Gosh you’re cute,” Jax said with a laugh.

“Shut up,” Liam snorted elbowing him gently. “Okay on the count of three I’m gonna throw this on top of Harper and then we gotta make a run for it, Got it?”

“Got it boss,” Jax said with a mock salute.

“Okay. One...Two...Three,” Liam chucked the pillow at Harper’s head yelling “Wake up for pancakes!” before turning around and shoving Jax out the door and bolting down the hall and down the stairs.

They ran into the kitchen, laughing and holding onto each other to keep themselves from falling over.

Helena, Nathan, and Henry were the only ones in the kitchen and they stared at them in silence for a moment before Henry started laughing and clapping, happy to see his brother.

“Did you throw something at Harper again?” Nathan asked, taking a sip of coffee from a mug emblazoned with the phase “Accountants work their assets off” in thick red letters.  
“You know how much she hates it when you do that.”

"She throws stuff at me all the time and it's not always soft like a pillow," Liam replied. "Plus it's easier to throw and run than face her wrath. I got kicked in the face once. Remember? I had a black eye."

"I don't mind if he throws things at my daughter to wake her up. At least it was just a pillow," Helena turned to look at Jax, "I've also been on the receivin' end of her wrath on more than one occasion. Gettin' the girl out of bed for school is a nightmare and a half. I'm thankful that you're an easy one, Liam."

Liam offered Helena a sheepish smile, "I'm glad you think I'm an easy child?" He came over to sit down next to her with a stack of pancakes on a plate. Jax joined him, sitting a little closer to him than he had last night.

Nathan arched an eyebrow at the two of them over his cup of coffee. "Is what I think is going on here going on here?"

Liam just ignored his father, cutting into his stack of pancakes with a shy grin on his face. He took a large bit of his fluffy, buttery pancakes, letting out a happy sigh at how delicious they were.

"I'm pretty sure it is, honey," Helena stated, feeding Henry a bit of pancakes, wiping off his syrupy face afterward. "You know we don't mind this just be careful. Oh Hen, hon. You're always such a mess."

"Oh my god Helena," Liam groaned into his pancakes. "Literally we just started hanging out, like last week."

Jax laughed a bit, taking a bite of his own pancakes. "They're just worried about you. And y'all don't have to worry. We're just gettin' to know each other but I do like him a lot."

Liam nudged him gently, smiling shyly. "I think you're kinda interesting too.

"You two are precious," Helena said with a grin, "Aren't they precious, Nathan?"

"Eh," Nathan replied taking a drink of his coffee. "I suppose. What are you guys doing today?"

"Whatever the commander tells us to do," Liam replied waving his hand at Helena. "We're pretty much at her mercy. Tell me commander, what would you like for us to do today?"

"I think I'll give y'all the day off if you want. You've been so helpful getting those rooms upstairs wallpapered. I've already inspected them and I must say that you've done a really amazing job, Jax. They all got a pass. You've put us way ahead of schedule," Helena said giving Jax a smile.

There was a loud thump upstairs followed by several loud thumps as Harper came thundering down the stairs. She stormed her way into the kitchen, her crazy red hair in a tangle on top of her head. "I hate you," Harper tossed at Liam as she wandered over to the pile of pancakes on a warming plate on the counter. "But I love pancakes so I suppose I'll forgive you for waking me up for a second time this morning." She skipped the maple syrup and reached for a bottle of Hershey's syrup instead. She drizzled some all over her pancakes before walking over and slumping at the table.

"You got enough sugar on there, Harps?" Nathan asked with snort. "I'm pretty sure you're going to have an extremely massive sugar high. And then you're going to have a massive sugar crash.

"I like chocolate, it's totally worth it," She replied, taking a large bit of her stack of pancakes. She gave Liam a look, "What the heck were you guys whispering about so early this morning? It was like an annoying buzz."

"Nothing," Liam replied quickly, shooting Jax a look to keep quiet. "I just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I had a little bit of a nightmare."

"Yeah," Jax replied with a teasing grin on his face, "So he woke me up and bothered me. I didn't mind so much."

"Sorry, not sorry," Liam replied with a shrug. He took another massive bite of his pancakes. "I wanted someone else to suffer with me."

"Oh my god you two are so gross I don't even know how to handle you this early in the morning," Harper groaned taking another bit of her pancakes. "What are we supposed to do today, mom?"

"I think I'm going to let you all off the hook today. Y'all can have the day to sort out your rooms. I know you've been dyin' to finish unpackin'."

"You have no idea. I've been wanting to get my TV set up forever. It's been forever since I've gotten to kick Harper's butt at Super Smash Bros," Liam exclaimed with a happy grin. He had been dying to finish getting his room setup. The chaos he'd been been living in for the past couple of weeks was driving him crazy.

"Yeah well it's been a long time since I've gotten to destroy you at Mario Kart."

"I think I'm gonna take both of y'all down," Jax grinned as he stood up to gather dirty dishes to wash them in the sink. He took his time washing and rinsing each dish.

"Oh honey," Helena began, "You don't have to do that. I've got it."

"No way, ma'am. I've got this. Thanks for feeding me this morning. It was delicious."

"I'll let my dad know then, darlin'. You are such a sweetheart."

"You'll have to tell my mom that. She thinks my sister and I are terrors," Jax grinned, "I'm not sure why she thinks that. I like to think that I'm a pretty good kid. I mean I'm on the honor roll and I've never gotten a detention." He just shrugged.

“I’ll definitely have to stop in town and let Celesta know how helpful you’ve been. You’re welcome to come out and help us any time.”

“I’ll take any chance I can to hang out with Liam.”

Liam flushed and got up to help Jax dry the dishes and put them away. As the two of them worked together on doing the dishes Nathan, Helena, and Henry moved out of the kitchen to get on with their projects for the day. Harper finished up her stack of pancakes and hurried over to drop her plate into the sink, so that she wouldn't have to wash her own dish. Liam shot her a dirty look but Jax just washed her plate without a word. Harper just gave him a cheeky grin before flouncing out of the room and up the stairs to start unpacking and cleaning her room up.

"You know you don't have to help," Liam told Jax once they finished cleaning up the kitchen together. "The rain has eased up and I can take you home."

"I'd much rather stay here and help you," Jax grinned. "Besides who's gonna help you put stuff up on your higher shelves?"

Liam rolled his eyes and put his hand on Jax's chest giving him a shove, "You've moved on from teasing Harper about her height to teasing me about mine? Not cool."

Jax caught Liam's hand and gave it a squeeze. "I think your height his cute." He leaned down and gave the top of his head a kiss. "Now come on. I think I'd like to help you get your TV set up so I can kick your ass at Mario Kart."

"You won't have to try too hard. I'm really, really terrible at Mario Kart. I'm afraid that I'll just embarrass myself completely." Liam let Jax move their hands together so that their fingers intertwined, feeling more content than he thought he could be. "I don't think that I've ever actually finished a course."

"Then," Jax began, tugging Liam closer to his side, " why don't you and I team up to completely destroy your sister?"

"You know what... I like the way that idea. She's always so smug when she bets me and she rubs it in my face. I'd like to see you destroy her." Liam tugged at Jax's hand and pulls him out of the kitchen and up the stairs. They slowly walk into his room and Jax pulls Liam over to his bed.

"You know... I know what you're really wantin' to do right now and I know it's really not settin' up your room," He sat on Liam's bed and tugged Liam down next to him.

"You do?" Liam asked, letting Jax stroke his fingers.

"I know you're wantin' to get out that laptop of yours and do some research. Before you do that though... I want to know what you dreamed of."

"I don't really remember all that much," Liam replied, tangling his fingers even more with Jax's. "But it was like ... I was another person. I think I was a soldier? A soldier from the south and I was deserting my troop. I think I was forced to join."

"Go on," Jax murmured, moving the fingers not clutching Liam's to stroke his wrist gently. "I want to know all about it.”

Liam nodded, he felt a little strange, telling this boy that he’d known for a little less than a week about his dreams and about the man he’d seen in his room. Admittedly Jax had seen the man too so he no longer felt like he was absolutely crazy. Maybe just a tiny bit crazy. “I’ve had … three or four of these dreams so far. I usually wake up quickly from them.”

Jax nodded, still stroking Liam’s wrist. “I’m listenin’.”

“The first dream I’m riding a horse at breakneck speed. It seems a little crazy to me because I’ve never actually been on a horse before but I knew exactly what I was doing as I guided my horse through a storm,” Liam stopped speaking to let out a little laugh. “It always seems to be during a storm, doesn’t it? There must be something about a storm…”

Jax nodded, "Storms can be very mysterious and dangerous. Always the perfect setting for a story. Or a dream."

Liam nodded, leaning in closer to him. He felt comforted by his presence to keep telling his dream. "I made it home in the dream. Here. I managed to get myself home and to the barn... the one that we were at yesterday... That's why I had such a strange reaction yesterday when we saw it."

"Did you... did you have a dream then?" Jax asked. "Is that why you fainted?"

Liam nodded, "I'll get to that in a minute. In my dream once I got to the barn there was another man in there. Benjamin, the man that we saw last night.... I'd seen him before... but I'll get to that to."

"Take your time, darlin'," Jax said with a sweet, slow smile. "I've got all day. My mama isn't expecting me to be home until later tonight. If you'll take me there."

Liam nodded and took a deep breath. "Of course I'll take you home. I wouldn't hate it if you stayed here with me another night though."

"I'd love to. I'll see what my mama says." Jax leaned his forehead against the side of Liam's head. "No go on. I won't interrupt you again."

"I don't mind. It gives me time to gather up my thoughts," Liam took another deep and steadying breath. "Where was I? Oh right. I found Benjamin in the barn. He'd been shot twice. Once in the chest and once in the leg. He was bleeding profusely. I managed to get him up and into the house where I cleaned and bandaged his wounds. I think... I think I was slowly falling for the strange man in the barn. He was so charming, even though he was in so much pain. He kind of... he kind of reminded me of you."

Jax cocked his head to the side, "You think I'm charming?" He had a crooked grin on his face. 

"Yeah," Liam said a little breathlessly at the look on Jax's face. "I think that you're incredibly charming."

"Oh?" Jax said, still with that crooked grin, "I happen to find you charming as well."

"Even though I'm a mess dreaming about something crazy that happened in the past?"

"I just happen to think that makes you very interesting," Jax replied, leaning in to capture Liam's lips softly in their first kiss. Jax brought his hand up to Liam's cheek, brushing his fingertips gently against his cheekbone before sliding them down to cup his jaw.

Liam let out a soft sigh as they continued to kiss gently. He lifted his own hand to cup Jax's jaw. 

"Ahem," came a soft cough from the door, causing Liam to jolt away from Jax with a blush bright on his cheeks. "I thought you guys were going to work on unpacking Liam's room not play tonsil hockey." Harper stood leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyebrow arched.

"Do you always have to ruin everything?" Liam groaned. It was his first kiss with Jason all over again. Harper interrupted that one too. 

"Well maybe if you didn't have the door open," Harper said as she stepped the rest of the way into the room. "This could have all been avoided. Again."

 

"Again?" Jax asked with a curious arch to his eyebrow. 

"Harper walked in on my first kiss with my ex-boyfriend too. It was awkward like this is awkward right now," Liam muttered pulling his hands away from Jax's with reluctance, he placed both of his hands in his lap and began to twist them nervously. 

Jax reached over and grabbed his hand again giving it a soft squeeze, "No need to be embarrassed about that. Lila walked in on me and my ex doing considerably more than kissin'. My door was actually closed too. She then proceeded to run downstairs and tell my mom. Now that was embarrasin'."

"See?" Harper said, "I could have walked in on you two doing the dirty. I would have at least knocked before barging in. You two are super cute together by the way. I may have gotten a picture." She waved her phone around with a smirk on her face.

"Harper!" Liam exclaimed, hopping up to grab her phone from her hands. 

"This is blackmail material," She grinned, pocketing her phone before he could get too close to grab it. "Aren't you two supposed to be setting up your room?"

"I was telling him about the dreams I've been having," Liam started. "I'm been having dreams about this place ever since we moved in."

"And I'm pretty sure we both saw a ghost last night," Jax cut in. "It was kind of intense."

"A ghost?!" Harper exclaimed. "Okay now why didn't you wake me up? I wanna see a ghost." She had a bit of a pout on her face.

"We didn't want you to scare it off or whatever," Liam mumbled, moving back to sit next to Jax on his bed. "You scared it the last time it was in here. Speaking of... the first time I saw him he seemed different. He seemed like he wanted to talk to me when I saw him the first time. This time... This time it was like watching a memory."

"A very horrible memory," Jax muttered, "It seemed like we were witnessing his death. It was kind of awful."

"I can't believe I missed it," Harper huffed. "I'm staying in here tonight. I want to see this ghost. Are you staying again?"  
She directed this question at Jax.

"I would like to. I don't like the idea of Liam being here by himself."

"Hey! I could totally protect my brother from a ghost. I mean... I've watched every episode of Supernatural like twelve times. I just need some salt and iron and we're good." 

Liam rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure I can handle myself against a ghost that doesn't seem to be malevolent."

"Oooh. Look at you using those terms. You're going to be a regular Ghostbuster," Harper cackled. "Should I get you a proton pack"

"You're an idiot," Liam said, but was unable to keep the fondness out of his voice. "But I guess I still love you."

"Thanks, bro," Harper said with a grin. "Now are we going to get your room set up or what? I'm dying to play some video games and your TV has way better resolution than mine." 

Liam looked over at his laptop. He was hoping that he could try to do some research on the house but the more he thought about it the more he realized he'd probably have to go to the library in town to do some research. He caught Jax's eye, "Wanna help us get this mess in order?"

"You sure?" Jax asked, glancing over at the laptop himself. "I thought you wanted to do some research."

"Lame!" Harper exclaimed. "Research is for losers." She'd already gone into the hall towards one of the spare service bedrooms where Liam's TV and gaming systems were stored away. "You can do research later."

Liam sighed, "I suppose she's right. Besides I don't think that I'm going to find anything I need on the internet. I'll probably need to go to the library to look up legends about the town. I'm sure they'd have more of what I need anyway. WHat am I going to look up on the net anyway? 'Houses haunted by Civil War era soldiers in Georgia?' That wouldn't narrow things down at all. Can you imagine?"

Jax let out a laugh. "Do you think you could get tomorrow free too? We can go to the library and maybe get some coffee or lunch."

"Is this going to be like a date?" Liam asked, somewhat shyly.

"Yes," Jax said with a soft smile, "This is going to be like a date. It will be an interestin' one at that. I've never taken anyone paranormal researchin' on a first date before. Should be fun."

Liam laughed, "Well I've never slept in the same bed with someone before a first date before. You really don't have to go with me though. It could be boring... Like it could be so boring." 

Jax reached over and gently grabbed Liam's jaw and tugged him in for a soft kiss, "I'd love to go paranormal researchin' with you."

"Hey!" Harper called from the spare room next door. "Are you two gonna stop being gross anytime soon? I can't lift that stupid TV by myself."

Liam laughed and stood up, before traipsing next door to help Harper.

\------------------

Liam was laying on the end of his bed enjoying the handy work of Jax, Harper, and himself. His room was finally unpacked and his TV was set up on a short bookshelf across from his bed. Harper and Jax had maneuvered the pile of pillows and blankets Harper had slept on the night before from beside the bed to in front of it and sitting on it waiting for their first game of Mario Kart to load. Liam moved around on the bed so that the top of his body was at the end of the bed, near where Jax was sitting on the floor. He dropped a hand on top of Jax's head to play with his hair. Jax tipped his head back ever so slightly to smile at him.

"You guys aren't going to be so stupidly cute when I destroy Jax's honor by slaying him at this game," Harper grinned as the screen popped up to select a character. She fiddled around with it until she finally settled on Luigi on a motorcycle. "I reign supreme at this game."

"Not for much longer," Jax snarked. He was taking his sweet time picking his character before he finally decided on Yoshi, also on a motorcycle. "I'm pretty good at this game."

"Are you gonna keep talking about how good you are or are you gonna show me? Don't want to embarrass yourself in front of your new boyfriend?"

"Them's fightin' words," Jax laughed as he finally selected his character and got ready for the game.

What followed was probably the most profanity filled minutes of Liam's life. He new that Harper had some creative choices for curse words but he felt himself flush at some of the dirty words coming out of Jax's mouth. When the three laps of the game were finished Jax came in first, but barely. During the last lap he and Harper had been neck and neck.

Harper let out a slew of creative curse words as Jax tipped his head back to grin at Liam, "I told you I'm good at this game. Although I must say she did give me a run for my money."

Liam let out a laugh and leaned down to press his lips to Jax's quickly, "Thanks for taking her on. Not many have and survived."

"Best two out of three?" Harper asked, not ready to admit defeat quite yet. "I think that you totally cheated."

Jax arched his eyebrow, "How can you cheat at this game?"

"You have the wheel," She pouted, waving her Wii-mote in his direction. "Everyone knows that makes steering easier."

"Aw... does the sore loser want me to take the Wii-mote out of the wheel to make you feel better?" Jax asked with a teasing lilt to his voice. 

Harper looked thoughtful for a moment, finger and thumb under her chin in the classic thinking pose. "Hmmm. Yes. Yes I do want you to play wheeless. I will get the wheel." She held out her hand wiggling her fingers as she waited for Jax to remove his Wii-mote from the wheel. 

Liam started laughing as Jax rolled his eyes and obliged, popping his Wii-mote out before handing the wheel over to Harper who popped hers in effortlessly. "Alright. Let's do this. Which cup do we wanna play now?"

"The Special Cup," Liam decided for them with a devious grin. Rainbow Road was on the Special Cup and he particularly enjoyed watching Harper scream and curse her way through that course. 

"Special Cup it is," Jax grinned, before hitting start.  
Harper let out a little whine of annoyance once the game started. "I really suck at this level." She had a pout on her face as she began to play the first level, cursing every time she drove off the road. 

Liam sat behind them watching them play, cackling every time Harper screwed up or Jax tossed a shell. By the end of the game Jax had won most of the levels and he was gloating with a smirk on his face. "Thanks for defending my honor, Jax," Liam laughed as Jax turned his head to give Liam a quick kiss. 

"Well now I need to feel better about myself. Play me loser," Harper demanded, plucking the Wii-mote out of Jax's hands before tossing it at Liam. 

Liam let out a groan, "This is going to be so horribly embarrassing. Don't laugh at me too much. This is going to be so awful."

"I won't tease you too much. Come down here with me and I'll help you, if I can," Jax tugged at Liam until he maneuvered his way onto the floor beside him. Harper took the opportunity of Liam moving so claim his spot. "Give me the wheel, Harps. You know I need it."

Harper quickly popped her Wii-mote out of the wheel before tossing it onto his lap. "It's not gonna help you too much. You're pretty hopeless. I mean I can't believe you passed your driver's licence given how terrible you are at this game. I mean I should have mine because I'm so kick ass at this game."

"Driving in real life is way different than driving in this stupid game. For one thing people aren't throwing stupid shells at me and driving me off the road," Liam grumbled as Harper started their first round. Liam trudged along at a slow pace, trying to keep himself on the road and to avoid the obstacles that would get tossed in the way. After spectacularly failing the first round, Jax took pity on him. He had Liam move around so that he was sitting situated in between his legs. Jax then wound his arms around Liam, placing his hands on top of Liam's. He was going to guide him through the game like this. Liam couldn't say he minded much as he let himself lean back into Jax's chest.

"Okay that is so not fair," Harper griped, starting the next game. "I mean he's practically playing for you. Are you doing anything at all?"

"I'm pressing the drive button. I mean that's the hardest part."

Harper rolled her eyes, cursing as Liam got closer and closer to catching up to her. "Yeah this is so the opposite of fair. Next round you're on your own. Shit!" 

Liam's character passed hers and Jax helped him steer until he was far enough ahead to be close to winning. Jax then slowly removed his hands, only to wrap them around Liam's waist, tugging him closer to his body. Liam felt warm and comfortable in Jax's embrace. He let out a loud whoop of laughter as he pulled through the finish line, winning the game for the first time ever.

Harper just dropped her Wiimote on the floor and tossed her hands up in the air in defeat. "So not cool. I can't believe you managed to win even after he let you go on your own."

"He's a good teacher," Liam replied, snuggling himself a little closer to Jax's chest feeling quite content.

"How about we play another round?" Jax asked. "I'll go easy on you this time." He shot Harper a grin over his shoulder. "I mean it won't be as satisfying for you but at least you'll be closer to winning."

Harper stuck her tongue out at him before picking up the Wii-more once again. "After this I'll go hunt down the extra Wiimote and we can play Super Smash Bros. It's in my room somewhere. You guys can be gross until I come back. I'll even knock on the door to let you know I'm coming in."

Liam picked up one of the pillows on the floor by his feet and tossed it backwards towards Harper's head.

"Hey!" She exclaimed. "At least I'm being considerate this time. You two can have like five minutes of make out time. And then I'll kick your asses at Super Smash Bros."

"No you won't," Liam chimed. "Super Smash Bros is my game. You've never beaten me."

"Well at least I might get the satisfaction of possibly seeing Jax beat you. You won't go too easy on you boyfriend will you?"

"Not a chance," Jax laughed, resting his chin on Liam's shoulder, getting in position to play the next game with Liam pulled close to his chest.

Liam let out a tiny yawn and nestled in closer to Jax. The warmth of his body was making Liam extremely sleepy. He hadn't gotten that much sleep the night before so settled against Jax he began to doze off.

\---------------  
Charles spent several long moments in the kitchen looking for anything that he could find to make a nice broth for the young soldier in the upstairs servants room. His mother and sister had really cleaned house when they took off after he'd been taken by the army. Charles finally came to the conclusion he would just have to try to forage something from the garden out back, hopefully. 

Lightning struck outside and Charles heaved a sigh. He wasn't looking forward to the foray out in the raging storm. He finally gathered up his courage and pulled on a long jacket and an hold hat before traipsing out in the rain. There wasn't much left in the garden either. Several tomatoes and an onion. He figured that Benjamin could probably stomach stewed tomatoes. He gathered them all up in his coat before hurrying back into the house. He hunted around the cupboards before he finally found an old copper pot. He took it over to the wood burning stove before heading back outside to gather some dry wood nestled on the back porch. Once he gathered the logs he went back inside and set about starting up the stove. 

While he was waiting for pot to warm up on the stove he managed to find a knife to chop up the onions into small pieces. He tossed the small pieces into the pot and let them cook up before he went out to gather water from one of the houses water traps. He added the water to the pot before adding the tomatoes. He stood around, prodding the tomatoes with an old spoon until he finally deemed them soft enough for Benjamin to eat. He added what little salt he could find and hoped that this meager meal would be enough to give Benjamin some energy. If he were to be stuck here for the next two weeks while the young man recovered from his injuries he was going to need to do something about food. He just hoped that what little rations he'd managed to take before he ran away from his mission would be enough for the both of them. He very nearly doubted it.

Once the tomatoes were stewed to his like he Charles dumped some into one of the few bowls his mother had left behind. It was one that was incredibly old and had a few chips in it but he figured that it would hold up alright. He brought the bowl of stewed tomatoes upstairs with the old spoon. He gingerly opened the door to find Benjamin once again sitting up in the bed.

Benjamin was incredibly handsome now that Charles could take a proper look at him. His skin no longer had the grey-sh tint to it that it had the night before but he was still incredibly pale with just a hint of rose on his cheeks. Benjamin's brilliant green eyes seemed to brighten when Charles stepped into the room. 

“You’ve returned to me,” Benjamin said with a look of almost surprise on his face. “I thought perhaps I’d startled you off with how forward I was earlier and that you’d decided to abandon me to the people who will likely be hunting you down in a few weeks. Or just to waste away on my own. Please. Come sit with me and keep me company.”

Charles held the chipped bowl close to his chest as though it would protect him from what he didn’t know. “I’m so sorry it took so long. I meant to bring you some broth but then I remembered… there would be no broth here. Then I meant to make you some but again I realised… there is nothing to make broth with in the kitchen. My mother took everythin’ when she fled the house with my sister. Then I remembered that there were still tomatoes in the garden and that I could stew you some. I’m not sure that it will taste very good but I did my best with what limited supplies I had… and now I’m quite soaked and babbling. I’m sorry.”

Benjamin regarded him with a soft amused look in his eyes. It made him look even more relaxed and handsome. Charles flushed when Benjamin’s eyes raked over his soaked body. “I hadn’t even noticed you were soaked. But after looking you do look quite soaked. And chilled. Please… go change into something dry and join me while I eat. It wouldn’t be good if my handsome caretaker caught cold while providing me with food. You really went through too much effort on my account.” 

Charles stepped closer and set the bowl into Benjamin’s waiting hands. “I couldn’t have you dyin’ of starvation after all of that effort I put into keepin’ you alive last night. If you don’t mind I think I’ll change.” He took a few steps back towards the door, keeping his eyes locked with Benjamin’s.

“Of course,” Benjamin said with a grin. “But do hurry back to me. I’m afraid I’ll miss you terribly while you’re gone. I do enjoy looking at you.”

Charles let himself huff out a laugh. “You don’t need to flatter me so much. I’ve already saved your life.”

“Ah, but you didn’t have to,” Benjamin replied. “You couldn have finished the job that your fellow soldiers started and shot me dead. Or you could have pretended that you didn’t see me bleeding out on your barn floor and gone on your merry way. I am forever in your debt. Anything you need I shall do for you. Especially if it happens to be a kiss.” He finished with a saucy wink.

Charles felt his cheeks go hot, “Couldn’t you wait until I’d changed my clothes before you started to shamelessly flirt with me? And I could have never shot you. I haven’t killed a single man so far in this war and I’d like to keep it that way. I would never have been able to live with myself if I’d abandoned you either.

Benjamin let out a loud laugh, “Am I getting you all hot and bothered? I wouldn’t hate for you to change in front of me here and now. In fact I’d enjoy seeing what’s underneath that soldier’s uniform. It’s only fair. You got to see me out of mine. On a more serious note though I could not thank you enough for all that you’ve done for me.”

Charles flushed an even darker shade of red. “It was a decent thing to do. I like to think that I’m a decent man. Now if you’ll excuse me for a moment I’m going to wrestle myself out of these wet clothes.”

“Go on then,” Benjamin said with a wave of his hand as he finally took a bit of his stewed tomatoes. “Please come back to me. I don’t quite like being alone in this house.”

Charles nodded sharply. He could understand the fear. Benjamin had just been shot and was technically in a house in enemy territory. Charles hurried to change into warm dry clothes before coming back into the room to sit on the edge of Benjamin’s bed.

By the time he’d returned Benjamin seemed to have wolfed down the tomatoes and had the empty bowl resting on his lap. His eyes lit up when Charles set on the edge of the bed. “I’m glad you’ve come back. I was almost afraid you wouldn’t again. I can’t say that I’m sorry for all of my flirtations but I would have been if you had left me alone.” 

Charles took the empty bowl from Benjamin’s lap and set it on the floor before looking back at Benjamin’s earnest face. “I don’t mind the flirtations,” Charles finally said slowly. “I’m really quite flattered. I’m… I’m not used to meetin’ men that are so free with their feelin’s towards other men… when they feel the way I do about them.”

Benjamin’s eyes widened a bit in surprise, “I wasn’t quite sure you felt the same I did. I was just hoping.” He got a rather shy look on his face, “At the risk of sounding insane I thought you might have been an angel when you rescued me. Your blonde hair whipping in the rain and your blue eyes… You’re exactly what I’d imagined an angel to look like.”

Charles felt his cheeks heat up once again. He hadn’t flushed quite this much since his last flirtation with a man. And he was nothing like Benjamin who had stunning green eyes, sharp cheekbones, and tousled black curls. Benjamin was everything Charles had ever been attracted to. 

Suddenly Benjamin reached over and grabbed Charles’ hand, “I’m going to sound mad for saying this but I think that you were supposed to find me tonight. I wasn’t even supposed to be in this area. I’d gotten separated from by troop and taken so many wrong turns when I was ambushed by soldiers. I’d gotten shot several miles away. I don’t even know how I made it this far.”

Charles let Benjamin hold onto his hand, slowly moving it slightly so that their fingers tangled together. “I wasn’t even supposed to go on a mission this week. The soldier who was supposed to was killed just before he was set out to leave. I was the only other person free. They weren’t too keen on their doctor leavin’ but I convinced them like I’d never convinced anyone of anythin’ before. I knew it was my chance to get away and come here.”

“I’m so thankful you did,” Benjamin whispered. “I now think I believe in fate. I was supposed to meet you here. Do you feel that way?”

Charles nodded his head weakly. He didn’t know what to think of all these feelings bubbling up inside of his chest. He’d only just met this young soldier but he felt so drawn to him. He couldn’t abandon him once his two weeks were up. He’d have to find some way to bring this man with him. He knew that his mother would adore Benjamin once they’d met. Charles’ mother was such an amazing woman. Not many others would tolerate the way Charles felt about men but his mother embraced him for how he was. She’d even offered to help him find a wife that would turn the other cheek while Charles engaged in whatever activities he wanted. Charles had turned her down, mostly because he wasn’t sure of his future when the war had started. 

Charles noticed then that Benjamin’s eyes were starting to get heavy. He was probably exhausted after all of the talking and excitement they’d just had. “I should go,” Charles whispered, lightly squeezing Benjamin’s fingers. “You need your rest and all I’ve done is excite you.”

“You have indeed,” Benjamin said with a tired wink. “Please don’t leave me. I don’t like being alone in this house. Especially when I know that you’re off somewhere in the house without me.”

“You need your rest,” Charles repeated, slowly pulling his hand free of Benjamin’s before using that hand to push Benjamin’s hair off his forehead. He felt very slightly feverish. “But I won’t leave you. I’ll bed down on the floor tonight.”

“You won’t sleep with me?” Benjamin inquired, eyes slightly pleading. 

“I wouldn’t want to accidently hurt you in the night,” Charles replied earnestly. “I would love to share your bed if you weren’t so tender.”

Benjamin looked slightly put out, “I couldn’t possibly ask you to sleep on the floor. Just… stay at the foot of the bed? It should be more comfortable than the floor. And I can keep my eye on you.”

Charles let himself roll his eyes before nodding. “Oh alright. I’ll sleep ot the foot of the bed but you need to rest.”

Benjamin nodded his head eagerly. “I shall definitely sleep better if I can see you up here with me. You put me at ease.”

Charles stood up, going to rummage for some blankets that his mother left in her hurry to flee the house. He settled himself up at the foot of the bed, watching Benjamin as he slowly began to drift off to sleep. Charles put one hand on Benjamin’s ankle keeping it there as he allowed himself to drift off into a surprisingly restful sleep.   
\----------------------

Gentle fingers running through his hair caused roused Liam from his nap. He blinked his eyes open lazily, looking around his room with sleep heavy eyes. He tilted his head back to lock eyes with Jax who was looking at him with a soft smile on his face. “Hey there, sleepy head. Have a nice nap?”

Liam nodded, still feeling pretty bleary. “How long was I out?”

“Ages,” Harper replied. “You missed lunch, dinner, and it’s already next week.”

Liam tilted his head to lock eyes with his sister who was grinning at him, an evil glint in her eyes. “Really. How long was I out?”

“Long enough for me to beat Harper about twenty more times at Mario Kart. roughly forty minutes. Helena sent up some turkey sandwiches so I figured I’d ease you awake.”

Liam just nodded, not eager to leave his comfy spot snuggled up against Jax’s chest. “Harps… Gimme a sammich. I’m too comfy to move.”

“What am I? Your servant?” Harper teased, handing Liam a paper plate with a turkey sandwich and pretzels piled on it. “It’s your favorite too. Turkey and avocado. My mom knows you so well.”

Liam nodded, finally sitting up again so he was now leaning back against Jax, not slumped and curled into his chest. He practically inhaled his sandwich as he watched Harper and Jax play another round of Mario Kart, leaving Harper pouting at yet another defeat. 

He began to remember the dream he’d had when he’d drifted off to sleep. He wanted to tell Jax about it but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go through the trouble of relaying the entire story all over again to Harper. He leaned his head back, tilting his forehead to nuzzle a bit a Jax’s jaw. Jax turned his head so his lips could brush against Liam’s forehead. He was momentarily distracted long enough for Harper to pull through and earn her first win of the day which she celebrated with a loud whoop of excitement. 

“I was distracted,” Jax muttered with a bit of a pout. Liam just gave him a bit of a cheeky grin, not really feeling that bad about Jax’s loss.

Harper was celebrating her win by jumping up and down around the room and shaking her shoulders in an awkward shimmy, her version of a victory dance. After a few moments of her rubbing her win in Jax’s face her phone began to loudly blare out The Avenger’s theme music, signalling the fact that Jason was calling her. She stopped her awkward jumping to swipe her phone open to answer it. “Jay-Jay!” She crowed as she sprinted out of the room. “I have so much to tell you!” Liam could hear her yelling as she slammed her door shut.

Liam groaned, knowing she was going to tell Jason all about him and Jax. He wanted to keep it just between them for now. It’s not that he didn’t want Jason to know he’d found someone he just didn’t want to talk about it with him. It just felt too awkward.

“Jay-Jay? I take it that’s Jason,” Jax asked, pressing another kiss onto the side of Liam’s head as he dropped the Wii-more to wrap his arms a little more tightly around Liam’s waist. 

Liam nodded, letting a little yawn escape from his lips. “He’s probably calling to get the gossip on you. He’s nosy.”

“Do you miss him?” Jax asked seriously. “It’s okay if you do. I still miss Harris. He was kind of a jackass but he was my jackass for a while. Until he just wasn’t anymore. It did not end amicably. Harris trashed my bike.”

“Not cool,” Liam mumbled, “I had another dream.” He said that last bit rather abruptly. “When I was napping… I had another dream.”

“Tell me about it,” Jax replied, ruffling a hand through Liam’s hair. 

“Are you sure?” Liam asked softly, “It’s starting to get… weird. Well not weird so much as intense.”

“Intense?”

Liam nodded, “This time in my dream Benjamin is… I think he’s in this room. It seemed so familiar. It felt like I was in this room and I was here with Benjamin. I don’t know how to put this into words.”

“Take your time, babe,” Jax said, with a gently voice. “I honestly think there’s something goin’ on here. I never thought I’d really believe in this kind of thing but after what we saw last night… I think I’m a believer. If you’re dreamin’ of the past… well I think I’d believe it.”

Liam’s heart fluttered when Jax used that term of endearment on him and he suddenly felt more at ease. “I think … whoever I was in the dream… I think he and Benjamin were in love. Or they at least were falling in love. I just felt so intensely what he was feeling… Mainly because it’s exactly how I’m feeling now. And I just said that out loud. I think I’m going to sink down into the floor right now.” Liam started to attempt to struggle his way out of Jax’s arms. “Because these are intense feelings and I should not be feeling them yet and I’m going to just die of embarrassment now. You can let me go now. I’ll just let the floor swallow me up right now. I’m ready. I’ve accepted my fate. Floor you can now have me as your willing sacrifice. You can let go of me now.”

Jax just let out a startled laugh but wouldn’t release his grip on Liam’s waist. “You certainly babble on a lot when you’re nervous, don’t you?” 

“It’s one of my more charming qualities.” Liam let himself go limp, hoping that the extra weight would cause Jax to finally release him. He was feeling so… confused. He was feeling all of the emotions Charles had been feeling in his dream towards Benjamin towards Jax. Were his feelings for Jax real? They certainly felt real. He’d felt drawn to Jax the moment they met in the front yard under the trees and he couldn’t explain it. 

Jax loosened one of his arms from around Liam’s waist only to take that hand and use it to cup Liam’s chin to turn it towards him. “I know what you’re feelin’,” He whispered leaning in close enough that their lips were almost touching. “I know what you’re feelin’ because I know I feel it to. I meant to tell you sooner but I’ve been havin’ dreams too.”

Liam was sure his eyes were about to bug right out of his face, “Wait… What?” He tilted slightly away from Jax to make better eye contact. That and he couldn’t think when their lips were so close. All he wanted to do was close the distance…

“I didn’ know how to tell you… I don’ want you to be mad at me when I tell you this, alright?” Jax asked, his hand that was still resting on Liam’s jaw moved to cup the back of his head to play with Liam’s hair. 

“I won’t make any promises,” Liam muttered, slightly terrified as to where this conversation was about to start heading. What kind of dreams had Jax been having?

“I had a dream the night before I met you. It’s part of the reason that I decided to come out to the house that day. I’d been to the house a few times when I was little with my grandpa but I haven’t been up here in years. In fact the last time I was up here was when my grandpa was closin' this place up for good. I was about eight years old. I'd never actually left the kitchen..." Jax trailed off, looking thoughtful for a moment.

"I think you just had a me moment," Liam muttered, pressing his forehead to Jax's. "You went off on a little tangent there. It is kind of adorable when you do it."

Jax laughed, "I think it's more adorable when you do it. I'm sorry that I got lost there for a moment. I think I'm afraid to tell you about my dream. I don't want you to be angry at me."

Liam felt his insides grow cold. This didn't seem like this was going to go well. "Just tell me, please?" He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and locking them on Jax's. "I can't promise that I won't be mad but I can promise that I'll try not to be."

"That's all I ask," Jax replied, moving his head a bit to press his lips to Liam's quickly. "I had to do that before I started up again."

Liam let out a little laugh and gave Jax a small kiss. He honestly wanted to kiss him one more time before Jax finally got around to telling him what was going on. "There's more where this came from. Now just tell me okay? The longer you put it off the more nervous I'm getting."

"It's really not that bad, I promise. I had a dream the day before I met you. It's goin' to sound crazy and I think you'll be mad at me for not tellin' you last night but I was a little freaked out... but I dreamt what you dreamt. Only... Only I felt like I was Benjamin."

Liam blinked slowly, staring into Jax's concerned eyes. Jax lowered his eyes, seeming to feel a little bit ashamed. "I think... I've been havin' the same dreams as you. I betcha tonight I'll have the dream you had today. Please say something."

"I'm not angry," Liam finally said. "Actually I think I might be kind of relieved. I thought you were going to tell me something way worse. Like maybe you were dreaming of killing me or something like that."

Jax cupped the back of Liam's head a little tighter, "I'm sorry. I made that out to be worse than it actually was. I don't know why I didn' tell you last night when you were tellin' me about your dreams. I think that maybe I was just a little shocked. Here I was stayin' in this house I hadn't been in since I was a little guy and I'd already been seein' it in my dreams."

"It is a little crazy that we're both having these dreams," Liam muttered moving his head back a little to look at Jax, "I'm not mad at you by the way. In fact I'm glad I'm not the only one having these crazy dreams. Do you think that it means something? Like... maybe we're supposed to do something?"

"Do you think we should go to the library today? As badly as I want to stay with you again tonight I probably need to go home. My dad really didn't really want me comin' up here in the first place. He didn't think it was safe. Helena really got the place up to code fast."

Liam felt his heart seize in his chest. On one hand he really wanted to do some research on the house but on the other hand he really didn't want Jax so leave for the night. He had this horrible fear that if he were to let Jax out of his sight he would disappear or something silly like that. 

"What's with that look?" Jax murmured, stroking Liam's cheek. "You look like a frightened puppy or somethin'."

Liam placed his hand on top of Jax's stroking his fingers across the back of his hand. "It's nothing," He whispered. "I just have an irrational fear about letting you out of my sight."

Jax smiled softly, "I know what you mean. I have that some fear. But I promise that I'll be back tomorrow. I don't think you could keep me away if you tried. It sounds crazy. We've only known each other for a week but... I think this feels right."

Liam nodded. He agreed completely. He let his fingers continue to stroke over the back of Jax's hand for a few moments before he finally gathered up the courage to pull away from Jax. "I think I want to go to the library today. How long do we have before it closes? I have a feeling that researching this place is going to take ages."

"We have until nine o'clock. It's only a little after two. How about we go some searchin' and then I'll buy you some dinner around six and then we'll do some more. I don't want to keep you out here too late though. Drivin' those roads at night can be pretty tricky."

Liam nodded. "You know.... This means I can't be in sweatpants anymore," He said this a little mournfully as he finally extricated himself from Jax to stand up. "I think Harper put your clothes in the drier yesterday. They're probably still there and all wrinkly. I'll go check."

Jax gave him a thumbs up watching as Liam stumbled his way out of his room. He wandered down the hall until he found the room that was now functioning as a laundry room. Helena had plans to have two sets of washer and driers when the house finally opened up for business. 

He was surprised to see that Jax's clothes were neatly folded on top of the drier. Helena must have come in there sometime last night to do it. He'd have to thank her later. He new for certain that Harper would never have done it. He picked up Jax's clothes and held them tightly to his chest before he returned to his room. 

Jax sat, still sprawled on the floor when Liam returned with his clothes. He stood up when Liam returned and met him in the doorway, taking his clothes from Liam's hand. He dropped a kiss on his temple. "Do you think I could get a shower before we leave? I don't particularly want to look like a slob on our first official date."

Liam laughed. He was thankful that there were several bathrooms in the house. He pointed Jax in the direction of his own bathroom. "You can take one in there. I'll use Harper's. I wouldn't want to subject you to the mess that is her bathroom. All of my soap and stuff is in there."

"Does this mean you're going to smell like a teenage girl when we leave?" Jax asked with an arch of his eyebrow. 

"Not at all. Can you believe that Harper and I use the same type of soap and shampoo? She doesn't believe in what she deems 'girly' products. She goes for the cheaper option."

"She's a smart girl," Jax laughed. "I'll see you in a few minutes." He headed off towards the bathroom leaving Liam alone with his thoughts.

Liam cursed under his breath. He really had no idea what he should wear on this trip to the library. He whipped through his closed before settling on a light blue t-shirt that he would pair with a blue and grey plaid shirt. He settled on a pair of regular blue jeans for his pants. He gathered everything up before he headed into Harper's bathroom. 

For a girl who didn't believe in 'girly' things she sure had a lot of makeup strewn across her sink. Liam was a little surprised seeing as he'd never actually seen Harper wear any of it. He walked over to the refurbished claw foot bathtub, shower combo and started it up. He fiddled with the temperature for several minutes. He had a hard time getting it settled on just right. It was either ice cold or hot like the fires of hell. Once he finally had the water at the perfect temperature he climbed in and began to wash his hair. He was feeling nervous all of a sudden. He didn't really know why. He'd already spent so much time with Jax today that spending time outside of the house together shouldn't be that weird, right?

He took a much longer time grooming himself than he usually did as he hummed to himself. This was a good thing. He really needed to get out of this house for a while. Even if it was to do research... on this house. At least he wasn't being a shut in. 

Once he got himself dressed and looking presentable he stepped out into the hallway. He poked his head into Harper's room to see her now Skyping with Jason on her laptop at her desk. Liam stepped up behind Harper, waving at Jason when Jason's eyes lit up upon seeing him. 

Harper spun around in her desk chair to see what Jason was looking at and rolled her eyes slightly when she saw Liam standing there awkwardly. "You're dressed. Why are you dressed? I thought for sure you and Jax would be going at it by now."

"Harper!" Liam flushed, pushing Harper's chair sending her swirling around. "I'm not that easy. I don't know why you put up with her Jason."

"I don't know," Jason said with a teasing grin, "I seem to remember you being quite easy."

"Please you guys dated for like ever before you even held hands in public," Harper said with a laugh. "You two moved at like a glacial pace."

"Just because we weren't holding hands in public doesn't mean we weren't doing other things," Liam said with a cock of his head. "I didn't tell you everything."

Harper opened her mouth in shock, "Wait what?!" She spun in her chair to look at Jason who was grinning. "You guys were totally hooking up before you so much as held hands in public? I feel betrayed. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Discussing my love life with you was not the top on my list of things to do, Harper. You'd just make fun of me."

"He's not wrong," Jason replied. "How are you doing by the way? I don't feel like we talk that much anymore."

Liam felt guilty. He hadn't talked to Jason as much this week as he promised he would. "I'm doing alright. This place has been a lot of hard work. Harper and I are practically dying of exhaustion every night."

"I still can't believe Helena convinced Nathan to buy that place."

"My dad would do anything Helena asked in a heartbeat. It's disgustingly adorable. It's also why he's gotten himself stuck helping refinish the library in this place. A handy man my dad is not," Liam let out a laugh. 

"I remember," Jason laughed. "It's good to see you. Does the offer still stand to come and visit you guys when the place is finished. I miss you guys so much."

"Duh," Harper said with a grin. "We miss your stupid face too. The place probably won't be done by the time we go to school unless my mom decides to hire someone to come and finish the hard work. Which she might soon. She's so sick of working on the library. I think all she wants to do now is decorate. Nathan is two steps away from hiring a crew behind her back. I don't think she'll be that angry about it either."

Liam interrupted Helena before she got off on a tangent, "It was good to see you even if was only for a minute, Jason. I'm about to head into town. Jax has to be home tonight and we're going to visit the library."

"Nerd," Harper muttered under her breath, "Well have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. That phrase actually makes no sense coming out of my mouth."

Liam rolled his eyes, "I promise I'll talk to you later, Jason."

Jason blew him a kiss before Liam left Harper's room. Jax was sitting on the edge of Liam's bed when he finally walked back in. "Hey."

Jax let out a teasing wolf-whistle, "You sure clean up nice."

Liam rolled his eyes. "Yeah right." He held out his hand towards Jax, "C'mon. Let's go get the keys to the van from my Helena and we'll load your bike up in the back. You won't be embarrassed to be seen in a mom van will you?"

"Not if I'm with you," Jax teased, "The town will be too busy gossiping about the new boy hanging out with me to even care that you're driving a mom van with a car seat in the back." Jax linked his fingers through Liam's allowing himself to be pulled out the door and down the stairs. 

Liam didn't even have to beg too much to borrow the van to go into town. In fact Helena practically shoved him out of the house telling him to have fun.

"I'm not sure how much fun we're going to have at the library," Liam muttered wryly as they loaded Jax's bike into the back of the van before climbing in themselves. 

"I don't know," Jax said with a bit of a naughty smirk on his lips. "I can think of some fun things we can do between the stacks."

"Nope," Liam laughed, starting the car up before driving off down the driveway. "We will be doing some serious researching at the library. You will not be distracting me at all. I want to try to get to the bottom of what's happening at the house."

"Oh alright," Jax said with a tiny bit of a pout. "But can we take a few breaks for some fun?"

"You're kind of incorrigible, aren't you?" Liam laughed as he turned onto the main stretch of road heading into the town. 

The rest of the ride into town the two spent talking about anything and everything. Liam was surprised to find out just how much they had in common. Liam had never really been one to jump into a relationship like he was doing with Jax. With Jason they had been friends for years for either of them worked up the courage to say something to each other about their feelings. 

Once in town Jax gave Liam directions to the town library.Liam was pleasantly surprised to discover that the library was situated in what used to be an old plantation home. It was large and white with a wrap around porch filled with wicker rocking chairs and even a few porch swings spaced out. He pulled into the small parking lot that only had two other cars in it and happily hopped out of the car after he'd unbuckled his seatbelt.

"Okay... This is everything I ever hoped or imagined a small town library would look like. Seriously. It's amazing," he reached out for Jax's hand once Jax rounded the front of the car to stand by him. "Look at the garden!" He pointed in the direction of a large garden that was lined with small walking paths and white stone benches. 

Jax laughed at Liam's wide-eyed enthusiasm with the library. "I'm glad that you like it. It's one of my favorite places in town. It's probably as old as Willowmourne."

"It's in much better shape," Liam laughed. "We ought to hire whoever it was that does the uptake on this place."

"That would be my granddad. And well my dad now." Jax tugged gently on Liam's hand towards the front of the house. "Gladys will be on duty today. She's gotta be at least a hundred years old. She's been the librarian since my granddad was a kid. She knows pretty much everythin' there is to know about this town."

"Amazing," Liam breathed as the walked into the house. Situated in front of an amazing staircase was a large old desk that had to be the only check out counter. Behind the desk was a tiny old woman with oversized red glasses sitting on her face connected to a bejeweled string. Liam continued to look around the old house, while Jax tugged him along to the desk. From what he could see each room was full of floor to ceiling shelves of books with worn old signs indicating what was in each section. It was one of the most amazing things he'd ever seen.

Gladys looked up from a worn old paperback to green Jax with a wide smile, showing off a pair of perfectly white dentures. "Why Jackson Larrimore! What are you doin' in here on this fine day? How's your granddaddy doin'? I sure miss 'im."

"Afternoon, Gladys," Jax greeted with a warm smile. "It was rainin' earlier and I thought I'd show our newest town resident the library." He motioned to Liam who stood next to him not really paying all that much attention to the pleasantries ash he gazed around the library with wide-eyed wonder. "This is Liam. His family is the one that bought up Willowmourne. He's obviously already enamoured with this old place. And my granddad is enjoying his retirement for the most part. He gets a little fussy now and again."

"Nice to meet you young man," Gladys greeted, stille with a warm smile. "Don't you let this young man get you into any trouble, you hear? Y'all lookin' for anything in particular or are you just showin' this place of to your new young man." She nodded at their linked fingers. 

"Nothin' gets past you does it, Gladys?" Jax said with a laugh. "This is actually our first date."

"And you brought him here? What kinda man are you?" Gladys teased good-naturedly. 

"He seems to be happy with the venue," Jax replied, motioning to the stunned look on his face. "And we would actually like some of your help. What do you know about the history of Willowmourne? Helena is taskin' Liam here with writin' up a pamphlet up on the house for when it's opened up to the public."

Liam finally snapped out of his wonder at the old library when Jax nudged him in the ribs gently. "Erm.. Yeah. Pamphlet." He let out an awkward cough as he flushed a bit under Gladys's gaze.

"First you bring him out to this old place and now you're goin' to do some researchin' for your first date?" Gladys looked a little skeptical. "And it ain't even the school year. "

"What can I say, Gladys? I love this place and your charming company. I wanted to share it with Liam."

"You always were such a flatterer Jackson. Just like your daddy. And his daddy," Gladys closed her worn old paperback and stood up slowly with great effort. "You lookin' on stuff for that old Willowmourne? It'll be upstairs." She pointed behind her to the impressive staircase. "I can't move 'round like I used to so Imma take a bit gettin' up those stairs."

"Oh no, ma'am!" Liam exclaimed as Gladys started to trudge slowly over to the staircase with every intention of climbing up them. She had already started to climb the massive staircase."I couldn't ask you to take us up there."

"Neither could I," Jax said as he let go of Liam's hand to help Gladys back down the stairs and back into her comfy old desk chair. "You just tell us what room to go in and we'll be just fine."

"Oh thank goodness," Gladys replied, breathing a bit heavily with the effort she'd taken to trudge up the first several steps. "I just don' think I'm up to climbin' those darned things again. I had to go up there and chase out Calpurnia this mornin and then again an hour or so ago. These old bones ain't what they used to be."

Liam arched his eyebrow in questioning at Jax at the mention of Calpurnia. "It's the library cat," Jax replied.

A library cat? Could this place really get any better? Liam looked around eagerly hoping to see the cat somewhere.

"Calpurnia's probably back up there again. He sure likes the history section," Gladys said settling comfortable in her chair. "Alice has moved things a bit since you were in here for your school project, Jackson. She's set up a town history section up at the top of the stairs in what used to just be the blue readin' room. She thought there ought to be a section just for us and I rightly agree for once. Makes lookin' up stuff for little ones school projects on the town much easier and Alice doesn't have to chase them around so much."

"Thanks so much Gladys," Jackson said with a charming smile. "I'll be sure to shoo Calpurnia out of the history section for you."

"Thank you so much, darlin'. He sure likes to try to eat those plants Alice insists on havin' in there. If y'all can't find what you're lookin' for up there you come right back to me. I'm sure I can give you some good things for that pamphlet of yours, Liam."

"Er.. Thanks ma'am," Liam said awkwardly as he hurried around the desk towards Jax. Jax reached for his hand as the began to climb the stairs. 

"And no funny business up there, Jackson Larrimore! Alice is around up there somewhere and I don't want you giving her a fright again."

"On my honor, Gladys!" Jax called over his shoulder once they reached the top of the stairs. 

There was a room right there at the top of the stairs that was decorated in several shades of blue. The walls had light blue wallpaper with pale pink and yellow flowers decorating it small delicate lines. There were three small white bookshelves filled with very old books and trinkets, against the wall between two large windows outfitted with dark blue curtains tied off with light blue silk ribbons. There were three old fashioned couches situated around the room covered in navy blue velvet with lighter blue pillows. The carpet was a blue a shade darker than the blue of the wallpaper and in the center of the room there was a large white table with four white chairs around it.

"Alice did a good thing settin' this room up," Jax said with a look of appreciation. "Used to be we had to hunt everythin' down we needed throughout every room up here."

"Who is Alice?" Liam asked as he made a bee-line for the bookshelves eager to get to work.

"Gladys' great-great niece. We go to school together and she's a bit of a spoil sport."

Liam rolled his eyes, "What did you do to give her a heart attack?"

Jax gave Liam a cheeky grin, "I might like to hide behind some of the shelves and jump out at her. She's never amused. And there might have been the time she caught me and Harris making out on one of the desks. Not my proudest moment. In fact all time spent with Harris was not my finest moment."

Liam just nodded, kneeling to look through the books on the first shelf. He ran his fingers gently over some of the older books. Taped beneath the bookshelves were small labels beneath several sections of the books, some with plantation names, others with important landmarks, and others with people of importance.

Liam looked through the labels looking for anything like "Charles Alexander Caldwell", "Benjamin Allen", or "Willowmourne". HE had no luck finding anything with the first two on it but he managed to find a book about the Caldwells in general. He even found a small section on Willowmourne. He pulled out the book on the Caldwells and all of the books on Willowmourne with a triumphant grin on his face. 

"This is better than nothing!" Liam exclaimed, carrying his finds over to the desk in the middle of the room. He settled himself into one of the chairs, waving Jax over. "Don't tell me you're just going to stand over there in the corner and watch me like a creeper."

"You're just so darlin' to watch," Jax said with a wink before making his way over to sit down next to Liam. He dropped a kiss on the top of Liam's head before reaching for one of the books. "These are all mostly done by local authors. They're pretty much the only people that have interest in our little town."

Liam nodded in acknowledgement, picking up the book on the Caldwells. He figured he could find something out about the man he was dreaming of being in this book more likely than any of the books on the home itself. "Don't be offended if I tune you out,"Liam warned, "When I get in research mode I get super focused."

"I bet you look cute when you do it," Jax said placing his hand on Liam's chin to turn his head towards him to give him a peck on the lips. "I had to do that before I lost you to the world of research."

Liam flushed a bit, before sinking down into his seat to open up the book on the Caldwell's. He looked through the table of contents and was surprised to see that the Caldwell's of Willowmourne during the Civil War were the last entry. 

He flipped straight to that section, pulling the book close to read. 

The introduction of the chapter spoke of Richard Caldwell the Third and his wife Elizabeth. They inherited the manor from Richard's father, Alexander, thirty years before the first battle of the Civil War. Elizabeth gave birth to their only son, Charles in 1841, and their daughter Adelaide in 1854. 

The book spoke about how kind of a man Richard was. He freed his slaves several years before the Civil War broke out. He'd never been one for the inhumane treatment of others. He really got others gossiping when they learned that once he'd freed his core slaves he paid them and gave them rooms in the house to live in. 

Richard died suddenly in 1859, leaving Elizabeth alone to raise their two children. Elizabeth immediately took over running the house because Charles had no interest in it. Charles was more interested in becoming a doctor than taking care of the family home and Elizabeth was more than content to let him do as he pleased.

Charles was home from school in 1862 when their home was invaded by the Confederate Army and Charles was forcibly enlisted as a medic. Shortly after Charles was taken away Elizabeth and Adelaide fled north to live with Elizabeth's sister, Lavinia. In 1864 Charles was sent on a mission for supplies and shortly after he was branded as a deserter and was never seen again. Elizabeth and Adelaide never returned to Willowmourne. 

Liam shut the book book slowly before setting it down in front of him. If anything he had more questions now. Charles just disappeared? In his dreams Liam could have sworn Charles was going to be with his sister and mother. Or at least that was what he had intended. 

Liam reached for another book on the history of Willowmourne during the Civil War. It was a very thin book. Obviously not much happened on the property during that time. Liam took the opportunity to read through it. What he read was pretty much a rehash of what he read in the book on the Caldwells. There was only one thing that was added. In the summer of 1864 the a small branch Confederate Army stopped on the property and found a young Northern soldier recuperating from two gunshot wounds in one of the rooms. The leader of the Confederate troop was not a kind man. He promptly shot the young man whilst he was standing in front of one of the windows. The force of the shot sent him toppling out of the window.

Liam slammed this book shut but he held it tightly in his hands. That had to be Benjamin. Jax gave him a startled look. "You alright there, darlin'?" He asked as he reached a hand over to soothe over the white grip of Liam's fingers.

"I already knew what happened to Benjamin. I've seen it. We've seen it," Liam mumbled a bit. "But he's not even mentioned by name in here. He's just a nameless soldier that got gunned down for no reason." Liam felt tears prick up in his eyes. He didn't know why this was affecting him so much. He knew the young man had died. "There's nothing about Charles being there when it happened in this book."

"Nor this one," Jax said, motioning to the book he'd just been reading. "Babe, you sure you're alright?" He twisted in his seat to touch Liam's cheek just below the corner of his eyes. He gently brushed away the tear that was making it's way down his cheek. 

Liam nodded, not really trusting himself to speak. He just slumped down in his chair, reaching for the next book. 

"Alright, I'll just let you keep on readin'. Okay?"

Liam nodded again, opening his book, burying his face in it to read to himself. This book was more of the same thing. A nameless soldier dying in Willowmourne and nothing at all of Charles Caldwell. 

After several hours of reading through the same stories over and over again in silence, Jax slowly pulled the final book out of Liam's fingers. "I don't think we're gonna find much else in here, babe. Why don't we call it quits for today?"

Liam just nodded. He felt emotionally drained. He spent most of the afternoon pouring over these books with Jax but he was still no closer to any of the answers he needed. He sat slumped in his chair while Jax tidied out the space and replaced the books on the shelf. He came back over and kneeled next to Liam's chair, taking Liam's hand in his. "Come on, darlin'. Let's get out of here, alright? Just sittin' here isn't gonna make things better."

Liam nodded and let Jax pull him to his feet. Once he was standing Jax wound his arms around Liam's shoulders pulling him in closer. Liam nosed at Jax's collarbone, before nuzzling his face into his neck. Jax held him tight for several long moments. "I wish this hadn't upset you so much, darlin'."

"I'm being stupid," Liam muttered into Jax's neck. "This happened so long ago. It's not like there's anything we could do about it now. They're both long gone. I just wish I knew what happened to Charles. He doesn't seem like the type to just abandon someone like that. Especially since I could feel what he did. It was like... love at first sight for him."

Jax just held him tighter, pressing a kiss onto his forehead. "I know what Benjamin was feelin' too. It was love at first sight for him too. Kinda storybook, huh?"

Liam just nodded, slowly pulling himself out of Jax's grip. He looked up to lock eyes with him. "It's so ... strange." He didn't want to admit that he felt the same way about Jax. The moment he saw him standing there, talking to Harper he'd just instantly felt drawn to him.

"I know," Jax replied, he tried to lighten the mood. "How about we get outta here and I buy you some of the best southern food you'll ever put in your mouth? Then I'll take you on a walk around town."

Liam nodded. He didn't realize how starving he was. When he got into research mode he kind of forgot to take care of his body. He also didn't realize how badly he had to use the restroom. "But first I really have to pee."

Jax let out a laugh. "I figured you would. I went just before you finished that last book. There's a restroom down at the end of the hall. I'll walk you there." He released his hold on Liam but dropped his hand down to link their fingers together. He led Liam out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom where he waited outside for Liam to do his business.

Liam took several moments after relieving himself to inspect himself in the mirror. His eyes were tired and glassy and his hair was a tousled mess. He liked to tug at his hair when he was reading, he wasn’t sure why. He took a moment to splash his face and try to flatten his hair. He wasn’t sure why on earth someone as handsome as Jax would want to be seen in public with him looking like this.

Jax was leaning against the wall when Liam finally emerged from the bathroom, hopefully looking a little more alive than he had when he’d first stepped in. Jax immediately reached for Liam’s hand and linked his fingers through his. 

They headed down the stairs in silence, nearly startling Gladys when they rounded the front of the desk. 

“Oh goodness!” She exclaimed. “Y’all were so silent comin’ round.” She was settled in her chair like she was when they’d left her earlier, this time she had a large tabby cat sleeping on her lap. “Calpurnia came down just after y’all went upstairs. Thank you for shooin’ her down here. She’s been sleepin’ here ever since. Did y’all find what you were lookin’ for?”

Liam was just about to answer an affirmative when Jax began, “Gladys, you know just about everythin’ there is to know about everythin’, don’t you? Especially about this town.”

Gladys let out a little chuckle, “You’re bein’ a flatterer Jackson. I like to think that I at least know a lot.”

“Well I have a question about Willowmourne. We read every one of those books up there but we couldn’t find the answer in any of ‘em.”

“Well go on and tell me, boy. I can’t answer you if I don’t know what it is you’re wantin’ to know.”

“Whatever happened to Charles Caldwell? We know what happened to his momma and sister but nothin’ about him. It’s just mentioned that he went missin’.”

Gladys looked thoughtful for a moment, “Now I don’t know the answer to that. It’s widely thought that he was killed around here after he went on his final mission. No one knows for sure where or what happened to his body. It was widely believed that he’d deserted.”

Liam just nodded. He figured that was probably what happened. Maybe he'd find the answers in one of his dreams. "Thanks so much for your help, ma'am."

"Well of course, sweetheart. Don't you be a stranger, alright? We have a book group that meets the second Tuesday of the month if you're interested in joinin'. We'd love to have some youngsters other than Jax and Alice." Gladys pulled a leaflet out of her drawer before handing it over to Liam. It advertised the date and time of the next meeting as well as the next book. He let out a laugh when he realized that they'd be reading the first Harry Potter book. "We read everythin'. Jax insisted that we start on them Harry Potter books and I must say I find the first one to be quite entertainin'."

"I'll definitely be there then," Liam said with a smile, sending Jax an arched eyebrow before mouthing 'book group?' at him.

Jax, for once, began to blush. "Thanks, Gladys. I'll be back later this week to help water the garden. You have a good rest of your day."

"You too darlin'. You take that boy of yours to Wilkinson's for dinner. He needs fattenin' up."

"That's just where we're headin'." Jax laughed as he pulled Liam out of the door. "See you later, Gladys." Once they were outside the library Jax heaved a sigh of relief. "Sorry to drag you out like that. Sometimes Gladys gets talkin' and she never stops. I was afraid we'd be there forever."

Liam laughed, "She's a lovely lady. I liked her alot."

"S'hard not to like Gladys. She's like the town grandma. I'm sure sure gets the more Christmas presents than anyone else." Instead of walking back to the van, Jax tugged Liam down towards the driveway that lead back to the main street. "It's a nice walk to Wilkinson's."

Liam nodded and let Jax lead them on a slow stroll down the street. There were very few cars driving on the street, but there were a lot of people milling around chatting with one another. Several people stopped Jax to talk to him and introduce themselves to Liam.

Jax lead Liam down another driveway and towards yet another plantation style home. This had one porch spread across the front of the building. There were pillars spaced evenly across it holding up a second floor balcony. Hanging from the porch was a large ornate sign declaring the house Wilkinson's.

"You look impressed," Jax said with a laugh as he led Liam up onto the porch. There were a few wicker benches placed evenly along the porch. "Your eyes are all alight."

Liam flushed a bit. "I kind of think this place might be amazing. I've only ever seen places like this on TV shows. I think I might be ridiculously excited to eat here."

"I will say it's amazin'," Jax laughed. They walked through the front door and were greeted by the young hostess.

"I thought you'd disappeared forever," The young girl said with a heavy sigh. "I supposed I couldn't get that lucky." Liam noticed the girl had Jax's bright green eyes but instead of Jax's dark curls she had a sheaf of stick straight blond hair.

"Liam this is my sister Lila. My mom made her get another job over the summer because she couldn't be trusted at the coffee shop. Here she doesn't have to handle money. Or pastries."

"It was an accident," Lila groaned. "I can't believe you told him. I thought for sure there would be one person in town who didn't know about that little incident. Just for that I'm gonna sit you in Harris' section." She put a little mark on a piece of paper before gathering two menus and lead them through a room to the right. 

"You are cruel, Lila," Jax groaned. "This is going to be so awkward."

"Nothin' like your ex-boyfriend meetin' your new fling," Lila grinned setting menus down at the table and motioning them to sit. They did.

"He's not just a fling," Jax muttered as Lila walked away whistling a cheery tune to herself. "I swear she's evil."

Liam fidgeted with his hands in his lap as he looked over the menu. Everything seemed to be deep fried and he had no problem with that at all. "Yeah. She should never meet Harper. Let's make a pact to keep them apart at all costs."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jax laughed, not even botherin to look at the menu. Instead he just focused his gaze on Liam, a soft smile on his face. "The chicken and dumplin's here are to die for. I highly recommend them."

Liam nodded, he was already thinking he'd get them before Jax made the suggestion. "Is that what you're getting?"

Before Jax could reply a boy a little older than them, twenty at least giving that he was a server, walked over with a pen and a pad of paper. He was tall and thin and handsome with a square jaw, freckled cheeks and brown hair with a slight reddish tint to it. He stepped up to the table looking a little stiff, "Jackson."

Jax rolled his eyes, "Harris. I thought Lila was joking when she said she was seatin' me in your section. I thought you were quittin' this job."

"Ain't nothin' else open this summer," Harris replied, a slightly sour look on his face as he eyed Liam up and down. "You part of that family that bought up Willowmourne?"

Liam just nodded, feeling slightly awkward as Harris continued to give him a once over. 

Harris put his pen to his pad of paper, "He's short." He directed this towards Jax. "And young."

"I didn't bring him here for you to judge him," Jax ground out. "And you don't have to be so rude to him. You broke up with me remember? Said I was too young and clingy."

Harris just nodded, "You were. I hope this works out better for you. What can I getcha to drink?"

Liam squeaked out a request for water while Jax ordered a sweet tea. He looked down at his menu until Harris walked off to go get their drinks. When he finally looked back up Jax was watching him. 

"I didn't realize your ex was older," was all Liam could think to say.

"Yup," Jax said popping his 'p'. "Not my finest moment. He was my first boyfriend. We weren't good for each other. We only dated over the summer last year before Harris went back to school. He dumped me when he was headin' back to his dorm room. Over text. I was rather heartbroken."

Liam took a chance to reach across the table and grab Jax's hand. "You don't have to worry about me breaking up with you over text. You're pretty much going to be stuck with me until you get sick of me."

Jax let out a laugh, "But what if you get sick of me first?"

"I'm pretty sure I have the better end of the bargain," Liam began lightheartedly. "You're pretty amazing. I'm kind of annoying. I tend to babble when I get nervous. I chew on all of my straws. When I'm nervous I also can't seem to stop jiggling my leg. I'm doing it right now." 

Harris returned with their drinks and rolled his eyes at the way that Liam had Jax's hand clenched in his. "Do you need another minute to order or are you gonna keep makin' googoo eyes at each other?"

Jax shot Harris an annoyed look but kept his hand in Liam's offering it a gentle squeeze. "I'm ready to order, how about you, babe?"

Liam flushed a bit and nodded. 

"I'm gonna have the chicken fried steak, gravy on the side, with the macaroni, fried okra, and corn."

"Would you like biscuits?" Harris drawled, copying down Jax's order.

"I would never turn down Ava's biscuits," Jax replied. 

"What'll you have then short-stack?" Harris addressed Liam.

Liam felt his cheeks heat up with anger but managed to bottle his temper up to order the chicken and dumplings with fried okra and broccoli.

"It'll be right up." Harris took off without another word, waving his notepad as he walked away.

"Sorry about him," Jax murmured. "I don't know what he's behavin' like such a prick." 

Liam leaned back in his chair, but still kept Jax's hand in his. "I bet it's because he's jealous. Not of me at all but because you moved on."

Jax snorted, "I know he's moved on too. We're Facebook friends. He's got himself a girlfriend now back at school."

"Doesn't mean he's still not jealous," Liam said with a shrug. "I think you're quite a catch. "

Jax let out a laugh, "Now I think you're quite a catch. I don't think I've ever met anyone else as invested in Harry Potter as I am."

"I can't help it!" Liam laughed. "It's just so good. I'm never going to find something as amazing as Harry Potter for the rest of my life."

"Have you tried reading the Percy Jackson books?" Jax asked taking a sip of his sweet tea. "The kind of have the same elements as Harry Potter."

"Oh yes! I've read them and I did enjoy them. The Heroes of Olympus series was even better. I loved the mix of Roman and Greek Gods and how we got to see their different personalities depending on what side they were showing."

Jax looked at Liam with what could only be deemed as a dreamy smile on his face, "Honestly it's like I dreamed you up."

Harris took that moment to reappear with a basket of biscuits along with an assortment of jams, honey, and butter. He placed it on the table and walked off without another word.

Liam was still flushing from Jax compliment as he reached for one of the golden, buttery biscuits. Jax just continued to smile at him with a goofy grin. "You're a secret sap, aren't you?" Liam asked with a laugh. 

"Who said it was a secret?" Jax grinned also reaching for one of the biscuits. "Not I'm gonna tell you a real secret. The best way to eat one of these biscuits is with a little bit of butter and a drizzle of honey."

Liam gave him a skeptical look. He'd never thought of having honey on a biscuit before. "Trust me," Jax continued. "This is gonna change your life. It'll be the only way you eat biscuits from now on."

Liam pursed his lips as he cut open his warm biscuit and put a smear of slightly melted butter inside it before adding a little drizzle of honey. He closed it up, as he'd seen Jax do before hesitantly bringing it up to his lips. He took a rather hesitant small bite. The biscuit was warm, flaky and buttery and absolutely melted in his mouth and the sweetness of the honey really added another level of tastiness. He let out a tiny little moan of surprise before finishing this biscuit happily.

Jax was giving him a grin, "See? I told you. It delicious, ain't it?"

Liam pouted a little bit, "It is. I really didn't want to like it but it was actually really delicious." He reached for his glass of water to take a sip of it. "I suppose I'll have to take your word on everything now."

"Of course," Jax teased, "I'm the authority on all things. At least as far as this town is concerned."

"Now if we were up in Maine I'd be the authority. Old Bay on everything."

Jax laughed, "I heard there was an Old Bay shortage not too long ago."

"It was devastating," Liam said with utter seriousness on his face. "All of our food was tasteless at school."

Harris returned again with plates heaped with food. Liam's mouth dropped in astonishment at the sheer size of the servings on the plate. "Am I supposed to be able to eat all this?" He asked looking at the huge mound of homemade dumplings and thick cut pieces of chicken covered in a thick sauce. He may have been amazed at the amount of food on his plate but his mouth was already watering.

Jax laughed as he started cutting into the huge slab of chicken fried steak on his plate. "Don't worry, babe. They have to go boxes. You're gonna wanna hide it from your family though. This stuff is legendary." Jax took the sliver of steak he'd cut and dipped it into some gravy in a bowl on the side before popping it in his mouth. 

Liam cut into one of the oversized dumplings on his plate and cut a piece of chicken to go with it. He put his bite into his mouth and let out a rather loud moan. "Oh my god. This is the best thing I've ever put in my mouth." The dumpling was light and fluffy and full of delicious herbs, the chicken was tender and juicy. It was perfection.

They made small talk throughout the rest of the meal, stealing bits off of each other's plates and laughing when one of them would block the other. Liam hadn't thought he'd have a time as nice as this with someone as amazing as Jax. 

Finally Liam couldn't eat another bite. He pushed his plate, still half full, away from himself and let out a groan as he rubbed his full stomach. "I'm so full... I'm pretty sure this is what it feels like to be pregnant. I'm going to be the proud father of a darling food baby later."

Jax snorted, "I shall proudly co-parent your food baby if you will co-parent mine."

Liam nodded weakly. "Deal."

Harris came around and plopped two boxes on the table, "Want dessert? I'm not sure ya'll couldn't eat another bit."

Jax sat up in his seat "Actually I think we'll share a slice of that chocolate chip pretzel pecan pie."

Liam opened his mouth to protest but then he thought better of it. The pie sounded amazing.

"Wouldja like to make it a la mode? We have homemade vanilla bean ice cream," Harris drawled, writing it down on it pad.

"Absolutely."

Harris just rolled his eyes and walked away.

"You sure we can eat that?" Liam asked, still slumped in his seat. He was so ready for a nap now that he'd eaten so much.

"I always have room for dessert," Jax said with a wink. "And this pie is amazin'. Ava makes the best sweets in world." Jax began to pile the food up in the two to-go boxes and Liam watched him with a smile.

"I don't know about that. I make a pretty mean chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake. Harps is mad about it. She gets it for her birthday every year."

"Well I might have to try one of those," Jax grinned, watching as Harris returned with a large slice of pie on a plain white plate with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of it.

Liam may have been stuffed to the gills but the moment the pie was placed down in between the two of them he was ready to eat it. He reached of one of the clean forks that Harris brought out with the pie. He waited a moment but Jax waved him on, holding his own fork, clearly waiting for him to take the first bite. 

The first bite Liam took of the pie was pretty much a magical moment. It was slightly warm making the inside a perfect gooey texture. The cruch of the pretzels was a pleasant surprise along with the crunch of the pecans. "Okay... This is absolutely magical."

Jax laughed and took his first bite. The pie was devoured in minutes and the both playfully fought over the last bite before Jax pierced it with his fork, only to feed it to Liam. Liam flushed all over after that.

Harris came by to drop their ticket off without another word. Liam reached into his pocket for his wallet but Jax scooped up the ticket before Liam could even get a chance to look at it. "I told you it was my treat. I'll let you get the next one."

Liam nodded, a little surprised. He and Jason had always split their tickets. Jax waved down Harris and they waited for him to finish out their tab. Liam reached across the table to grab Jax's hand. "This was totally amazing. Really."

"I'm glad you liked it," Jax grinned. "Does this mean I'll get a kiss when you drop me off at home?"

Liam laughed. "Yes. You'll definitely get a kiss."

"Then my work here is done," Jax laughed as Harris returned with his receipt. He filled it out before standing up, holding his hand out for Liam. "You ready to go? I thought we could take a walk around town for a bit but it's much later than I thought it would be and I don't want you drivin' back to Willowmourne when it's too dark."

Liam felt a little disappointed that their night was ending so early but he looked at his phone and was surprised to see that it was already almost nine o'clock. "At this rate it is going to be dark when I get home."

"Then you'll have to promise to call me when you get home so I know that you're safe," Jax stated as he grasped Liam's hand when Liam finally stood up. "I'll worry about you til you get home."

"You really are a sap," Liam teased as their fingers tangled together and the walked out out towards the hostess desk.

"You better be comin' home tonight," Lila griped when they walked past her. "Mama is gettin' annoyed."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jax drawled. "Liam's gonna drop me off just now."

Lila pulled her phone out of her pocket, "I'm textin' her to tell you that your new boyfriend is about to drop you off at the house. She's gonna want to meet you." Lila directed this at Liam.

Jax just groaned and tugged Liam out of the restaurant. "You are just gonna stay in the car. I'm not gonna subject you to that woman. You've already had to meet Lila and my ex-boyfriend today."

Liam heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness I don't think I could possibly handle meeting any else today." 

They walked back to the van still parked at the library. Just as they climbed into the car it began to rain, again.

"Is it always this damn rainy?" 

"Unfortunately it is," Jax laughed before giving Liam directions to his house. 

Jax's house was a nice sized, older home. Not really as impressive as some of the other buildings Liam had seen today but it still had the Georgian charm of a large front porch with a porch swing. "I know it's nothin' like Willowmourne..."Jax began.

Before he could finish his thought Liam blurted out, "I love it. It looks so homey and warm."

Jax's eyes lit up before he leaned over the center console to kiss Liam hard on the lips. He brought both of his hands up to cradle Liam's face. He gently brushed his fingers over Liam's cheekbones as he deepened the kiss ever so slightly by opening his mouth slightly. Liam in turn opened his more and they continued to kiss intensely until someone knocked on the passenger side door.

Jax groaned as he pulled away from Liam. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to have to meet my mom tonight."'

Liam felt a little dazed as he murmured, "It's okay."

Jax opened the door and slid out, "Mama, Liam. Liam, mama. He's gotta head home before it gets too late."

The woman standing beside Jax was short with his bright green eyes and his sister's blonde hair that was knotted on top of her head. "Nice to meet you darlin'. I hope to get to see you soon when you're not about to run off. You come by the coffee house anytime and I'll get you some free coffee."

Liam grinned, "Nice to meet you too ma'am. I'll definitely take you up on that offer. I'd better head out before I can't see my way home. I’m still so new here that I have a hard time finding my way around. Night, Jax.”

“Call me when you get home,” Jax reiterated, leaning back into the van to kiss him soundly, once more, not even minding the way his mother was teasing him.

“I will,” Liam said breathlessly. He waited in the driveway until Jax and his mom got into the house before he began his journey back home.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so this is my first attempt at posting original work on here.. or any work at all really. It's still really rough and unfinished... I'd appreciate some feedback! Thanks for even opening it!


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